![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonlady7farm stories
via https://ift.tt/2RWnkEl
riding in the car yesterday with BIL, who is the farmer’s market president, on his way to PA to pick up his daughter from her visit to the midwestern relatives.
his phone rings and he answers it on bluetooth. it’s the woman who’s working the farmer’s market for the farm today. it’s near the end of market. she says she’s just calling to keep him posted on what went on today.
Well, she says, there were some religious fundamentalist types who came into the market to preach, which is a thing that happens. If they stand by the entrance and gently hand out fliers that’s fine, that’s up to them. but when they come in and start yelling, that’s when people get mad and ask them to leave. it’s disruptive and bad for business. But we have free speech, the people always protest, but they can stand on a public street and say whatever they want. Not if you’re impeding business, the vendors argue. Or if you’re harassing customers.
Well, she said, we called the cops, but the cops said they wouldn’t do anything unless the preachers were getting violent. But I had a solution, the woman says. Because the thing is, if they can stand in the street and yell, then I can too. So every time they started preaching, I’d walk out and stand next to them and start shouting about the various goods and services offered at the market, and shout directions to the various booths, and explain the merits of a producer-only market like this, and the importance of patronizing local food businesses.
It usually worked, she said; she had better projection and more fervor than they did, and she sold a lot more stuff than usual because customers would follow her back to the booth to buy things.
“Sorry you had to deal with that hassle,” said BIL, who confirmed that there’s nothing the market can do unless the preachers are directly hassling people or impeding business.
“No no,” she said. “It’s fine, it was a really cathartic release of aggression for me, especially given current events.” And then she laughed. “The thing is they thought they knew what they were getting into, but the thing they didn’t know is, I’m loud.” (Your picture was not posted)
no subject
Date: 2022-07-03 09:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-07-03 10:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-07-04 02:21 pm (UTC)