Let's go to the Hop ....

Sunday and the day started quietly with an early morning breakfast amongst the dew laden flowers in the garden.. listening to the world waking up .. some of it at least.. as all the neighbouring houses still had tightly closed curtains.. some still hanging on to sleep.
I was getting restless... the adrenalin was beginning to kick in and by 10.a.m we were piling my usual array of 'vintage tat' into the boot of the car and making a short journey to Green Park Station in Bath to take up position at the vintage market .. part of the Bath Festival Fringe events.
Sitting at the traffic lights in town .. my thoughts turned to Jayne and whether she and Clare would find their way to the unfamiliar territory of Sainsbury's car park.. adjacent to Green Park Station. No sooner thought.. than Mr Custard pointed out that the car behind us was in fact.. Jayne's ... so we arrived in convoy! Clare had cleverly nabbed three market stalls together so in unison we set up our array of vintage merchandise and sat back and waited... and waited ....

The Three Amigos

It seemed to be rather a long wait before a slow trickle of people just happened to walk past our stalls en route to their Sunday shop at Sainsburys. Some folk were not so blinkered and turned their attention towards our displays.. some even bold enough to come over and take a closer look..

My collection reflected in the vintage clothes stall's mirror

Some were even bolder still and took a step further and bought a few items !! It did somewhat amuse me that every time I left my stall to take a look at the Lindy Hop dancers that were taking place at the other end of the market, I would return to find a small cluster of people around my table..


The British seem to have such inhibitions at times and my presence behind the stall was enough to scare off a most timid folk...

Clare's beautiful hats attracted a lot of interest

The music and dance was the silver lining to an otherwise long and tiring day .. and the friendly chat with my lovely neighbours Jayne and Clare.. and Jayne's daughter and man friend helped enormously to pass the time.
I think I will put this one down to experience, as it could have been so much better had the event been publicised more effectively as most of my visitors just happened to stumble across it..

Jayne's fine display

However, the music was infectious and I found myself swaying and gyrating to the strains of 40's melodies and standing on tiptoe to try and get more of a glance at the wonderful dancers.. some dressed in their finest vintage clothing... How I wished I had dressed more appropriately and worn something to fit the mood...



I found this couple fascinating.. and they turned out to be the finest dancers.. most agile and light of foot ..twisting and turning, swaying and twirling with such ease and style.. Sadly I did not get a photo of them dancing....

Others were just as graceful and agile and were obviously seasoned pros on the dance floor...
I felt mildly envious of their dancing prowess and made some vague promise to myself to try and learn a few dance steps so I might join in one day...

Just need a little bit of practice first... no.. make that a lot !!