31 Jul August at Experienced Goods
by Jennie Reichman
It’s August. It’s hot. My tomato plants have lost their minds and are trying to take over the world. I am to blame for this because, even though I put cages around them when I first planted them and staked them up when they got a little bigger, work and musical gigs and vacation and myriad other activities usurped my time and energy and I ignored the wildly growing plants. Now they are as tall as trees and putting on fruit, and I must disentangle them from each other and add more stakes so they don’t fall over. It’s a summer ritual, actually, one I swear I won’t repeat every year but always do.
It’s hard to stay organized this time of year; summer in Vermont is fleeting and precious and most of us try to cram as much into it as we can. I enjoy the predictable markers of these months: The solstice, Juneteenth and Memorial Day kick it off, the 4th of July comes up and we wonder how we got there so fast. In Marlboro, where I live, the fabulous Marlboro Music Festival begins to take shape in June and by mid-July there are lines of traffic snaking by my house on concert afternoons and evenings. Marlboro also just had its annual Summer Sale, a town-wide tag sale that benefits the Marlboro Alliance. I am in the midst of helping to plan and create The Marlboro Community Fair that will happen in September, and it’s shocking to realize that it’s a little more than a month away. At some point soon, the leaves will start turning. Wait, what? Noooo! Too soon!
Time takes on a similarly warped and speedy shape at Experienced Goods as well. We started putting out shorts and swim suits in May, and along with summer dresses, they have been selling steadily ever since. We’ve burned through the boxes of summer clothes we keep in storage, which makes it a little harder to keep seasonally appropriate and interesting garments on the racks, so we recently took a risk and opened up some boxes of fall clothing and hung those for customers to peruse. Nothing too wooly or sweat-inducing, just some long sleeves and earth tones, a little fleece, a little flannel. A few light jackets for those deliciously cool nights. Customers were excited! Even though contemplating the end of summer (not yet, not yet) is bittersweet, there is something thrilling about anticipating the beauty and coziness of fall and winter.
In other news, you may be aware that the non-profit organization StoryCorps spent some time in Brattleboro recently. They parked their Airstream trailer in the Harmony parking lot and anyone, individuals, couples, children, elders, could sit with a facilitator and a recording engineer and tell their story: of their lives, their history, their dreams and disappointments and accomplishments, anything. The premise is that everyone has a story to tell and everyone deserves to have that story preserved for posterity. StoryCorps then broadcasts these recordings in their podcast, which is also featured on National Public Radio. They also archive every recording of every story they record. Well, guess who got to participate in this project? Our very own fearless manager Karen Zamojski and her partner Gemma Champoli! Karen and Gemma spent 45 minutes telling not only their personal stories, but the story of Experienced Goods and each of us that works there. They made sure to talk about the diverse talents of our eclectic crew, all of us finding ways to pursue our dreams and express our creativity in the world. Karen and Gemma’s story will be aired in the podcast sometime in the fall; watch this space for the exact date and time!
What is your story? Have you ever thought about it? Maybe as you hurry through busy, fun-filled summer days, tell your story to yourself. Sit outside on a summer night and listen to the crickets as you remember the events and people that make you who you are. Then when fall and winter arrive and life slows down a bit, be your own StoryCorps and write or record what you remember. It’s true that we live in historic times, but the most important history is your own.