Market Music: a hyphen-enriched meditation

Grace and I met them while standing in line to buy crepes. If you ever find yourself at the Saturday Minturn Market, know this in advance: procuring a crepe for lunch means a long wait in a long line, but it’s worth every sun-drenched, leg-to-leg-weight-shifting nanosecond. Two guys who look like back-country guides in chef’s apparel prepare your crepe right before your eyes and to your specifications. The results are mmmmm-inducing delicious.

So, we stood and stood and stood in line. In front of us, some mega-rich lawyer with extensive land holdings chatted up my dad (also a lawyer) about real estate hoo-hah. Yawn. Grace and I devoted our attention to discovering various uses for the so-cool, hand-knit-in-Argentina, gypsy-scarf-belt-thing we’d just bought. While we were engrossed in fashion-extravaganza-discovery mode, a tall, scruffy, jubilant young man approached the woman behind us and started singing a song about standing in line for crepes.

I jerked my head around. “Hey! I thought we were the only ones who made up songs about everything we do.”

He grinned. “Oh, no. So far today I’ve composed songs about the crosswalk and the roasted almonds.” He held out his bag of fresh, honey-roasted almonds. “Want one?”

We demurred. “We couldn’t! Don’t you want them?”

He shrugged. “It’s more fun to share.”

“Thank you,” we said, as Grace and I each daintily partook a single roasted almond. When the guy took off for another booth, the woman (his mother) shook her head and said, “I raised three like that. I can’t do anything with them.” Her smile suggested she’d be disappointed if she could tame her offspring.

“I think it’s great,” I assured her. “If I didn’t know better, I’d swear your son was related to my kids and their cousins.”

Turns out the singing scruffy one is a lawyer, too. Got himself a job working for a Colorado town so he could live amidst his beloved mountains. And wear teva sandals. And frayed, baggie shorts. And a scraggy beard.

The man who’d been picking dad’s brain about real estate law barked instructions into a blackberry. The muscular, melodious, mountain attorney skipped off with his girlfriend–probably to make up a song about gypsy scarves or market people or the color of the sky.

Wanna know what I think? Happiness doesn’t come from what you do or what you have. It’s more about who you are and what you love.

I think I’ll write a song about that. ♥

0 thoughts on “Market Music: a hyphen-enriched meditation”

  1. Market music

    Jeanne, this is wonderful and so joyful. I’m afraid I don’t often make the best of waiting in line, but I feel inspired to do better.

    We don’t make up songs much, but in our family we have been known to start singing because something someone said or a situation reminds us of a song. My grandma did it, my mom did it and at least one of my brothers does it. Our kids think we’re nuts, but I suspect they’ll be doing it too. 🙂
    Linda Gilmore

  2. Market music

    Jeanne, this is wonderful and so joyful. I’m afraid I don’t often make the best of waiting in line, but I feel inspired to do better.

    We don’t make up songs much, but in our family we have been known to start singing because something someone said or a situation reminds us of a song. My grandma did it, my mom did it and at least one of my brothers does it. Our kids think we’re nuts, but I suspect they’ll be doing it too. 🙂
    Linda Gilmore

  3. Market music

    Jeanne, this is wonderful and so joyful. I’m afraid I don’t often make the best of waiting in line, but I feel inspired to do better.

    We don’t make up songs much, but in our family we have been known to start singing because something someone said or a situation reminds us of a song. My grandma did it, my mom did it and at least one of my brothers does it. Our kids think we’re nuts, but I suspect they’ll be doing it too. 🙂
    Linda Gilmore

  4. Singing in the store

    Man, I SO want to be that guy singing about roasted almonds in the store, except wearing a cape and tall hair instead of scruffy beard and teva sandals
    Evan

  5. Singing in the store

    Man, I SO want to be that guy singing about roasted almonds in the store, except wearing a cape and tall hair instead of scruffy beard and teva sandals
    Evan

  6. Singing in the store

    Man, I SO want to be that guy singing about roasted almonds in the store, except wearing a cape and tall hair instead of scruffy beard and teva sandals
    Evan

  7. How do you do that — make standing in line fun!?

    What you say is so true (“happiness comes from who you are and what you love”)! And a corollary of that would be, one’s happiness shows up in one’s writing too. Your joie de vivre comes through loud and clear…when did you say your book was coming out?

  8. How do you do that — make standing in line fun!?

    What you say is so true (“happiness comes from who you are and what you love”)! And a corollary of that would be, one’s happiness shows up in one’s writing too. Your joie de vivre comes through loud and clear…when did you say your book was coming out?

  9. How do you do that — make standing in line fun!?

    What you say is so true (“happiness comes from who you are and what you love”)! And a corollary of that would be, one’s happiness shows up in one’s writing too. Your joie de vivre comes through loud and clear…when did you say your book was coming out?

  10. Wow … I wanna live in Colorado and grow my beard scruffily and make up songs! It’d be a lot more fun than what I’m doing now. sigh.

  11. Wow … I wanna live in Colorado and grow my beard scruffily and make up songs! It’d be a lot more fun than what I’m doing now. sigh.

  12. Wow … I wanna live in Colorado and grow my beard scruffily and make up songs! It’d be a lot more fun than what I’m doing now. sigh.

  13. Crepes, Mountain Funny

    Great post. Put things in a funny perspective.

    DEe
    christianfiction at blogspot dot com

  14. Crepes, Mountain Funny

    Great post. Put things in a funny perspective.

    DEe
    christianfiction at blogspot dot com

  15. Crepes, Mountain Funny

    Great post. Put things in a funny perspective.

    DEe
    christianfiction at blogspot dot com

  16. I liked him at once. He was most assuredly your kindred, Sparky. Were he not so tall and lawyerly, I would have expected him to scamper barefoot up a nearby tree, where he would probably have pulled out a slim, Milne volume and proceeded to read whimsical poetry aloud.

    I miss you.

    LOVE,
    Mz

  17. I liked him at once. He was most assuredly your kindred, Sparky. Were he not so tall and lawyerly, I would have expected him to scamper barefoot up a nearby tree, where he would probably have pulled out a slim, Milne volume and proceeded to read whimsical poetry aloud.

    I miss you.

    LOVE,
    Mz

  18. I liked him at once. He was most assuredly your kindred, Sparky. Were he not so tall and lawyerly, I would have expected him to scamper barefoot up a nearby tree, where he would probably have pulled out a slim, Milne volume and proceeded to read whimsical poetry aloud.

    I miss you.

    LOVE,
    Mz

  19. Thanks so much, Violet. 🙂

    When is my book coming out? Heh heh. Wish I knew. Believe me, the trumpets will sound, and a proclamation will go out to all the earth. Or at least to people who read my blog.

    I appreciate your being one of them, by the way. Thanks for stopping by.

  20. Thanks so much, Violet. 🙂

    When is my book coming out? Heh heh. Wish I knew. Believe me, the trumpets will sound, and a proclamation will go out to all the earth. Or at least to people who read my blog.

    I appreciate your being one of them, by the way. Thanks for stopping by.

  21. Thanks so much, Violet. 🙂

    When is my book coming out? Heh heh. Wish I knew. Believe me, the trumpets will sound, and a proclamation will go out to all the earth. Or at least to people who read my blog.

    I appreciate your being one of them, by the way. Thanks for stopping by.

  22. Wouldn’t it be nice?

    Look on the bright side. You can have two out of three, anyway. Grow your beard and make up songs about cable stuff. Try it. It’s fun. (I mean, making up songs. I’ve never grown a beard.)

  23. Wouldn’t it be nice?

    Look on the bright side. You can have two out of three, anyway. Grow your beard and make up songs about cable stuff. Try it. It’s fun. (I mean, making up songs. I’ve never grown a beard.)

  24. Wouldn’t it be nice?

    Look on the bright side. You can have two out of three, anyway. Grow your beard and make up songs about cable stuff. Try it. It’s fun. (I mean, making up songs. I’ve never grown a beard.)

  25. Re: Crepes, Mountain Funny

    Thanks, Dee! And thanks for stopping by. I’ve seen your name at F*i*F and occasionally at The Master’s Artist. Nice to see you here, too. 🙂

  26. Re: Crepes, Mountain Funny

    Thanks, Dee! And thanks for stopping by. I’ve seen your name at F*i*F and occasionally at The Master’s Artist. Nice to see you here, too. 🙂

  27. Re: Crepes, Mountain Funny

    Thanks, Dee! And thanks for stopping by. I’ve seen your name at F*i*F and occasionally at The Master’s Artist. Nice to see you here, too. 🙂

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