Roots Country Market

Sharon has always been telling me stories about this country market auction called Roots. It happens every Tuesday and is huge. All the Amish, Mennonites, and other farmers in the area bring their goods together and have a huge farmers market. There is a livestock auction where hens, chickens, etc are auctioned off and there is a produce/other goods auction. Beside the auctions there is a typical farmer market. There are buildings with stands where you can find many different goods from food to crafts. Some of the booths have been occupied by the same families for generations. It is a pretty neat experience with good prices for excellent produce and the like.

Sharon took me to the Pretzel Shop where she remembers getting pretzels as a little girl. Did I mention I love pretzels? Check out this huge pretzel they sold. We shared it for Lunch and Dinner.

May Day and Marietta Day

Sharon and I have had the opportunity to go out and enjoy a few of the local traditions in the area. Our first day here we went to Maytown to celebrate "May Day". It was the 250th anniversary of the founding of the town and so I got the feeling the celebration was a little bigger than in past years. There were a several events spanning several days. Most of the excitement toke place on a stage they had set up in the town square. There was a historical walk they had set up and a few tents selling some merchandise along with food stands where I was able to have real funnel cake, a local fried dough delight. The biggest tradition was the May Pole Dance, where young women hold ribbons and dance around the pole in a way that the ribbon braids itself down the pole. It wasn't really as exciting or technical as I had originally thought, but still fun from the traditional aspect.

Funnel Cake

May Pole Dance (There is another picture posted earlier by Sharon) 

Marietta Day on the other hand was completely different. I've been trying to think of a way to explain it. For those of you who might be familiar with Swiss Days held in Midway, UT, it is kind of like that, but more informal. It's basically a huge community spring clean/yard sale/fund raiser all in one big event.

The main street of the town, Market Street, is closed to traffic and people from all over the community just set up shop on the curb. From what I could tell all you have to have is some old stuff you want to sell. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. There were people selling off their old children’s clothes, movies, books, CD's, car parts, fishing gear, tools, dentist equipment, etc.. There were some more professional/legitimate set ups too. There were also people selling art and photography, jewelry and the like. Of course you can't have an event like this without food. There were your carnival type trailer food offerings(again with Funnel cake), to your local high school sports teams selling brownies and everything in-between. To top it all off there were a few musical groups/bands sprinkled throughout doing performances. It really was an interesting commercial experience. We weren’t in the market for much, but we found some good clothes for Ira between $0.25 and $1.00 so we were happy.

Market Street on Marietta Day (This picture is worth examining closer)

Anyway, it's been fun to take part of some local community events. They really seem to bring people together. It's also great to finally have a point of reference for when Sharon brings up her childhood memories and can understand why they are such fond memories.