Tent City

Okay, so I tried to paint an accurate if not frustrating picture of where we are living during our kite adventure.  Now, for where we set up shop.

As I explained earlier, our Kite Shop is in a retail courtyard called Tent City.  Back in the day this empty parking lot was filled with tents – sort of like a flea market – temporary structures that broke down every season.  Two years ago they made them more permanent with walls and ceilings and garage door entrances that could be locked every night.  There are 15 booths.  This season four were not rented.  There are two back corner booths that are the largest and we are in one of them.

There is a property manager named Lee Ann.  On our first day here we had an appointment with her to hand over the very significant check for three months rent.  She sent her assistant to get it.  Her assistant waters the plants.  We felt that was very unprofessional.  She works in a building two doors down.  We have never met her.  I don’t like her.

Some background – most of these tenants have been here for years.  They all know each other.  The odd part is they don’t bother to learn each other’s names.  Everyone is referred to by the item they sell in their booth.  Jim and I are Kite People – Jim is Kite Guy.  We will hear snippets of conversation like “Kite People are here”, “Kite People are kissing again”, “Look at Kite Guy fly”.  We learned names, we are civilized people after all, but I will use both tags going forward.

First is Toe Ring.  Toe Ring is owned by Nancy, a lawyer in a past life.  She sells Toe Rings that are fitted to your toes.  We were told one year she made $100k doing this!  She has two very nice women that work for her – Barbara and her daughter Beth.  She lives locally.

Next is Palm Reader.  Stella and her family are fortune tellers, palm readers, Tarot card readers, etc.  They own another location down the road.  Stella is the matriarch.  Her daughters also work the booths.  This year her two granddaughters (Alexis and Sammie) also read palms.  They all live together in a home a few blocks away.  They are referred to as the Gypsys as well.  Stella is probably in her late 60s.  She has an aura of a Russian or Greek woman.  She dresses well – big diamonds on her ring fingers.  She demands that all her family dress professionally while working.  Her family is serious about the business … Jim had his palm read and she said he had a child, I had mine read and she told me I was a nice person.  We’re a little skeptical ….

Next is Anklet.  Hair 2 Feet is the name of the business owned by Linda and Pete.  They’ve been doing this for five years.  The first year was their best year.  They live about an hour away but reside in their camper in a local campground all summer while running the booth. Linda is here all the time.  Pete is the house husband who runs the errands, brings her meals, stays at the campground while she works.  Linda walks very fast and is a little bit of an airhead.  She checks in with us alot – “Good sales today?”, “You guys leaving soon?”.  Jim jokes that she’s my new best friend.

We had a run in with Anklet right off the bat.  Each booth gets to sell an exclusive item that the other booths can’t sell.  We have two booths so we have two items – Kites and Lighted Items/Toys.  One of the items were planned to sell were LED hair clips.  Well, once Anklet saw we had hair accessories, she said “Well, I sell hair accessories.”.  Her store is called Hair 2 Feet – she does sell anklets and hair clips.  But, she has one booth and can only have exclusivity on one item – which would be anklets.  We assured her our small inventory of lighted hair extensions would not impact her business.  Linda seemed okay with it until she told her husband Pete.  He immediately called the property manager, Lee Ann, who started an email battle.  We again explained how our little stash of hair stuff was insignificant but the war ended with her last email “Just stop selling them and make my life easier!”.  Well, that was all Jim needed.  He previously had no use for Lee Ann since our earlier impression and now, he was just completely done with her.  We are two weeks away from closing and we have yet to meet her.  Our relationship with Pete and Linda was now strained.  We were only here a few days and already the Tent City politics were pissing us off!

We are next in the courtyard.  Again, we have the corner booth which in reality is two booths and a “bonus” section connecting the two.  It was a good deal and a sufficient amount of space for us.  I will explain in another post about our store, how it was set up, etc.

Next to us is Tattoo.  They do temporary airbrush and henna tattoos.  Dick and Shar own the business.  Their sign says they are the oldest temporary tattoo shop in America!  They’ve been here for 35 years.  The rumor is they drink in their booth all day.  They break for Happy Hour every day and go to the local restaurants.  I realized the other day that I never see them leave the booth to use the public restrooms.  Jim sees them close the booth and stay inside – he thinks they are peeing.

Tattoo has people who work with them, too.  James and his wife Emily are here on Sundays, a super nice young couple that we joke around with. Audrey, a long time friend of theirs, helps out, too.  Through our friendly conversations we found out that Audrey is a gardener that has a huge problem with chipmunks and squirrels.  She told us that she puts habanero sauce on the bird food in the feeders to deter the squirrels from eating all the seed (apparently the birds can’t detect it).  She laughs in delight as the squirrels ingest the “fire seeds” and run away in pain.  To cure her problem with chipmunks (they make tunnels under her driveway) she  puts out a bucket of water with a 2×4 leading up to it.  She puts sunflower seeds on the bridge to the edge of the bucket and floats seed on top of the water.  The chipmunks follow it up, look in the bucket at all the seed floating, jump in and drown.  She scoops out the dead critters and sets it up to catch more.  She is a CHIPMUNK KILLER!!!!  I love chipmunks, they are so cute.  I’ve always wished someone would domesticate them so I could make one my pet.  I have issues with Tattoo.  Not the people but the entire concept.  That will be another post.

Next to Tattoo is Sunglass.  Sunglass is run by Bruce and Farrah.  They have a sign out front that says “YOU NEED SUNGLASSES” and apparently people do.  They also sell beach cover ups, t-shirts, dresses, and trinkets.  They are from the Middle East, have a little language barrier and are very shy.  They only speak when spoken to.  They used to have a shop in York, Maine and this is their first year here.  They have the other corner unit.  No one seems to talk to them but us.

Caricature is next to them.  He goes by “Caric”.  His real name is Ethan.  He is an artist.  He has a lovely girlfriend named Lindsey.  He’s from Seabrook.  This is something to make fun of.  We will explain why later.  He is sweet and young – a little nerdy.  He goes to college still and this is his first year here.

After Ethan is Air Brush.  Owned and operated by Doug.  Doug is alot of fun.  Jim bonded with him immediately over classic rock music, The Grateful Dead, and old cars.  He free hands air brush artwork on t-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, etc.  He has a great girlfriend, Jen, who has the same sense of humor as Jim.  They make each other laugh so hard – I love watching them crack up with mouths wide open and no sound coming out!  I feel like they would be people we would hang out with in our real life.  He lives local and has been in these booths for a long time.

Last is Silver.  Carmen sells silver jewelry.  He has been here the longest – maybe 40 years.  Lots of people our age tell us he was here when they were children.  Carmen looks like an older Gene Simmons.  He wears a cowboy hat over his long black curly hair.  His elderly sister Marge comes to work with him every day.  She is hard of hearing and has memory loss, maybe early Alzheimer’s.  She doesn’t hear anything said to her.  Jim swears he has whole conversations with her and that she is lucid and responds appropriately.  We all think he’s joking.  But he is a charmer and a flirt and I do see her adjust her chair so she can watch him fly.  I think she has a crush.

Even with all our differences we are one big happy family that makes up Tent City!