"Do any of these have anything to do with a frog?"

Ahhh.  And don't forget the 'monkeys' that we place
on the backs of our children.

 

I get a chance to speak to only a fraction of the 10 million visitors that stream past our booths at Pike Place Market each year.  We watch them as fishermen watch a river.  We put our bait out and hope that someone will bite and purchase one of our works of art.  With this mass of moving humanity it is rare to see or hear something new to respond to or point a finger at. I think that this will prove to be a banner year for "firsts" as I recently had two in one day.

We see many animals coming through.  Even what someone insisted was a large rat.  The tail was a dead give away.  You may ask,  "How can someone have an animal just sitting on their shoulder?"  We ask ourselves the same thing.  " Where does the pet poop and pee?" Also a valid question.

Regular animal sightings include a lovely gray parrot that will "meow" on command and play dead, flipping backwards and swinging off of his owners fingers.

A 'possum.  Gross.  I really dislike their beady little eyes, long pointy nose and there's that tail - long, skinny and naked.  ick.  It's best not to look past the 'possum to the guy carrying him on his shoulder.  I won't take time to describe him here. 

Then there is the homeless woman with the black bird tied into her jumble of hair so that he just stands on top of her head.  Last year she carried a beautiful little bantam rooster in her coat.  At times she would bring it out and put it on her shoulder.  She would stand not three feet away from me as tourists took pictures of her seemingly ignoring the fact that she was dressed completely in long black rags with bare blackened feet hardened with time and pavement and carried a large wooden staff.  "How cute" they would say and then attempt to ask her questions.  I think that it was for the best that they never received a response.  One day she took the rooster out of her coat and swung it over her head, threw it on the ground and stomped her foot on it's neck.  I believe that I may have screamed.  She calmly picked him up. Feathers fluttered and she popped him back into her coat. Oh, and did I mention that she floats by on a scooter? 

Back to my story - so - lots of animals on shoulders.  Dogs in strollers are also popular.  I once reached out to pet a chihuahua in a doggy-pack device hanging across the front of the owners body and was reminded immediately of the scene in Alien when said alien comes bursting out of the human's chest.  Have you noticed that it's the littlest ones that can be the meanest? Nasty little thing.  There is also the occasional shoulder or carry pack kitty.  But yesterday - well yesterday a family with 3 children walked by the booth and I noticed that they were each carrying a small cage with a handle.  A cage purse if you will.  In each cage was a hamster busily munching on hamster munchies or digging around in their hamster shavings.  The proud mom said that her son's hamster had been with the family for 7 years.  Ok then - that was a first.

The other was a "first hear" -  A woman strode right up to my booth, pointed at the work, and asked "Do any of these have anything to do with a frog?"  Cricket chirping silence. "uh. No."  She left the booth, I turned to my neighbor and asked "Did she just ask if any of these have anything to do with a frog?".  Neighbor nodded.  The woman popped back in front of my booth and overheard my question.  "Yes, that's what I asked."  She explained that she saw that I did symbols and simply wanted to know if I had anything that represented a frog.  I told her no, but in the 17 years that I've had this business I had never been asked that question before and how much I appreciated the diversion.