Les Femmes Des Savons

( dangerous animal seen regularly at Eastern Market)

It's hot! The rebuilt Eastern Market structure may have air conditioning, and our vending fees may be going in part to finance it, but outside in D.C.--ouch! It is HOT and humid! Back in the day, before the new fancy stones, when 7th street was asphalt, during this time of year I could look out from my Saturday spot on the North plaza and see heat waves coming off the pavement. Then, when I walked across it, the tarry stuff was tacky. So, after a long day of selling my work (or, as I like to call it, arting, or, for most of you ,SHOPPING) one needs a bath, because one is unclean, and the Market has many wonderful options to change that.

Before I discovered "dirt soap," I would jump in the shower and get out, towel off and...yuck! I mean, y' all know when you're toweling up dirt on your skin. At such times, don't leave the shower/bath and come back and look down; my exclamations included, "who left that?" "was there a pig in the shower?" "that sh@# did not come off of me!" and, one memorable day, "so that's where that ant got to!"

Okay, so maybe nothing can completely beat the filth after a long, hot day at the Market, but you can still get clean with...dirt? Bernadette Mayo, i.e. BAMI products has created soap balls, one of which is made from "Dead Sea mud." Yeah, weird, but it works: think pumice, but with a better smell. It helps to exfoliate the skin, and goes head to

head with the filth.

(Bernadette Mayo)

Bernadette has been at the Market for twelve years. She has often had assistants in the form of her children. Lucky woman! Okay, mothering, tough job, but after you raise them, I hear they are useful...at times. Now she has not only the grandkids working for her, but the dog (see the dangerous animal above.) She calls him Tybee. (I call him "ugly"...also, "rat." I love dogs...to kick, sic on people, sit on my feet when it's cold, you know all their uses. But we all know that CATS are the superior pet.)

True story, just to give you the feel: last spring, when I was set up next to Bernadette , I needed a mint or some gum. Breathe deep: spring in DC smells a lot like pollen. My throat was itching and I was coughing. Bernadette is a grandmother, after all, so she has everything: sewing stuff, plastic forks, delicious spicy shrimp salad, potato salad (she makes this especially for Dan Kessler's birthday) extra containers of propane, change for twenty dollar bills, extra sweaters in the winter, needle and thread, crochet needles... I really do mean everything. But did she have gum? No! A doggie treat, sure: nothing is worse than a granny with a small dog. She told me once when it came to Tybee, "the dog spoiled himself."

( I spoiled myself) Anyway, there is healthy soap (very important in the summer at the Market) and then there is sexy soap. You know that sometimes you need a SYM ((Sexualize Yourself Moment), right? This situation calls for some hand made candles and soaps from my girl Kim Downes ( Aurora Bath & Jewels), a cross between, Madonna, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Phylis Diller and Cyndi Lauper. I called her Broom Hilda behind her back for years, Broom to her face. You've got to hear her laugh--she has a real cackle. And her outfits...well, only mine match them on originality. But where she shines is the boudoir products. Kim was featured this spring in the Washington Post Magazine for her Cherry Blossom soap, sort of a soap version of "like a virgin". Every Valentine's Day I take myself out on a date; key elements are a shower with Kim's rose soap and finishing the evening with chocolate. Heaven! Kim, like Bernadette, has turned her business into a family affair. She (lucky thing) has Mom and Dad back home in Pennsylvania making soap and such, and sending it down to her in Washington. Don't think I could try that move with my mother. Nope, not a chance. Kim Downes has been at the Market for sixteen years. By hazard Kim and I often meet up at Teaism in Dupont Circle. We holler and cackle together about our life as strong

(Kim Downes)

minded, independent women who are making our livings

outside at The Market.

Back in the day, with Market 5 Gallery, we (that is, artists, makers, vintage and flea market folks) could set up inside the North Hall on Saturday and Sunday. Olivia Cook's place (Peacock Botanical) was in front of the stage on the right. Photographer Jim Spillane and painter Victor Kinza were on the left. And to her right was Adiante Franszoon, wood artist. I remember learning that Olivia Cook was a high school English teacher. She makes beautiful, fragrant soaps. Visually her soaps are extraordinary, with small pieces of "stuff" or, as she told me when I finally asked, other soaps inside each bar she hand-cuts. (Olivia Cook)

My mother was also a high school teacher. Soap or not... When I would come into Market 5 Gallery in the North Hall to ask John Harrod a question (John is the founder of all outside activities at Eastern Market) or pay my booth fees, I would see her multi-tasking. Often she brought a pile of papers to grade in the intervals between soap sales (poor babies.) She had a rhythm: answer a client's question, sell a bar of soap, and never lose her place in some high-schooler's composition. That red pen would fly. Breathe easy, twelfth graders: Ms. Cook is now retired. She just makes soap now, so your spilt infinitives and dangling modifiers are now safe. Olivia Cook has been at the market for more than a decade.

Historical corrections

In the Washington Post Metro section the Sunday before the grand re-opening, it was stated that all merchants including crafters were returned to the building.

More than a dozen crafters, artists and flea marketers in the North Hall first were displaced by the renovation for two years and are now permanently disenfranchised from their permanent spaces on Saturday and Sunday by then Office of Property Management (OPM) now Department of Real Estate Services (DRES). The North Hall of Eastern Market now is a soulless shell; there is no clear plan as to its future as a "community arts space."

witnessing,

Sonda T. Allen

Turtle's Webb