My wife and I have been selling an assortment of merchandise at street fairs, A&C (Arts & Crafts) Shows, festivals, and county fairs for over eighteen years. We made yearly trips out of state to Tyson Wells, AZ (July) and various locations in Oregon (July) to sell for extended periods of time in January and July. We participated in many street fairs in the Bay Area and other Northern California locations along with the lovely Central Coast Area throughout the year, visiting and doing street fairs in such communities as Arroyo Grande, Grover Beach, Morro Bay, Los Osos and Cambria, just to name a handful... Last year, I had to withstand winds in excess of seventy miles per hour as both my canopies toppled over in Arizona sending everything crashing to the ground into the mud and water. Imagine watching at least 60 other canopies being lifted into the air while others crumbled merciless to the ground. Canopies that didn't go flying went lying. There were canopies and merchandise that flew away, some never to be seen again. People lost many thousand dollars of their products. See what it's like taking a motor home to Oregon to sell at County Fairs and other events. Our trips north were a lot of fun but getting two flat tires on our motor home once was just not too enjoyable. How about having your vehicle disabled right in the middle of an event hundreds of miles from home? Now you can "meet" many of the 'characters' that we encountered over the years. Read about Moonwalk Marvin, Bossin' Bryan, The Super Heinz Lady, The Walking Billboards of Morro Bay, Hot Flash Henrietta and so many more. I've written about many of our experiences in restaurants and motels, good and bad. Here's one what went on in one Northern California motel: "This definitely is not a 5-star motel. There were noisy neighbors. There were kids racing up and down the hallway. I had to listen to a loud TV next door throughout the night and into the morning. I heard a car outside playing loud music for half an hour near mid-night. People were constantly standing in front of the entrance smoking cigarettes. There were more kids congregating in front of the building swearing at one another. I heard the water being turned on and off 2-3 doors down. Surprisingly, I haven't heard the elephants stomping on the floor above yet, but I sure as heck heard the horses go galloping past my room outside in the hallway. There are some dogs in the rooms." Here is a short description of one of our Northern California festival locations: "A lot of the people in general, tended to be one's escaping the harsh realities of life and living in a world of their own. A lot of them looked and acted spaced-out. I noticed quite an assortment of characters that seem to have exiled themselves from society in the Bay Area. Perhaps many of them found their way over there from the Mendocino Marijuana Fields. They seem to be 'the people that time forgot." How about having to deal with a day and a half of constant rain in Chandler (AZ) where we had two feet of water in a gulley where our booth and other vendors were located. Can you imagine not being able to bring your vehicle in to load up your goods? Find out how we made it out of there. There were a number of vans and trucks that had major problems trying to make it out of the muddy parking lot... See how an anticipated beautiful weekend in South Lake Tahoe in May can turn into a total disaster with snow, cold, freezing rain, wind and illness. I could not believe the extremes in temperatures we had to endure during the months of May and June. One week we encountered 108 degree temperatures in Oakdale, 40 degree temperatures in Lake Tahoe and then back up to 100 in Patterson, I am very down to earth in my descriptions of the events and I am known to all as a 'straight shooter, ' one who holds no punches and I tell it like it is, for better or for worse.
About the Author: I was born in the industrialized city of Holyoke, MA in the year 1951 and I spent the first 12 years of my life residing in what was then the 'Paper Capital of the World' where many factories took advantage of the cities' dam and canal systems. My mother worked at National Blank Book doing assorted jobs in the production of paper products. My father worked in the manufacturing of golf balls at A.G. Spalding in Chicopee (MA). After my mother passed away from inoperable brain cancer in 1963, I moved to New Jersey to live with my sister until joining the U.S. Navy in 1970. I spent four years on ships in the Pacific Fleet spending time in the Gulf of Tonkin, Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean while visiting ports in Korea, Japan, Philippines, Taiwan, Australia, Okinawa and Hong Kong. I was married in the Philippines in 1973 and have remained married for 38 years to my Filipino wife. Upon discharge from the service in 1974, I resided in the city of Alameda, CA and lived there until 1981, at which time I moved to Pacifica and then Hayward thereafter I began working for the U.S. Postal Service in 1976 and retired in 2003. My wife and I began our business in 1993 selling jewelry that she made along with stained glass creations which I made. Over the next 18 years we imported products, made wholesale purchases and sold at over 500 arts and crafts festivals, County Fairs and street fairs. We have sold on the Internet for the past ten years and in 2009 we opened a store for a short period of time. We have visited all 50 states while traveling extensively throughout the United States and have been to 7 provinces in Canada. In 2003, we drove to Alaska making it the last state. . I have written and submitted articles to websites about selling at craft shows and have maintained my own site where I provide weekly reviews of shows we participate in and offer much advice and suggestions to vendors and others other people. "Street Fairs for profit, fun and madness" is my first publication and I hope to have more. I am currently working on other books about the business that we are in.