Who needs bazaars?

The ladies of Christ Church, Creston ran out of steam this year. They have "always" held their fall tea and sale on the Saturday closest to Remembrance Day. This is the kick-off to the church bazaar season. The Presbyterians have theirs the next Saturday, then the United Church, then the Roman Catholics. Some other churches work theirs in somehow, but these are the big ones.

Last year the ladies worked all fall to make little things for the sale. Cloth gift bags. Christmas tree ornaments. Sachets. Little doo-dads and trinkets. And they put on their support hose and worked all Saturday morning making sandwiches and squares, and all Saturday afternoon serving at the tea.

This year the prime mover of last year's craft efforts was ill, and so was the head of the ladies' guild. And suddenly it was mid-October and they hadn't even begun to think about the bazaar.

And they were tired and depressed. Attendance has been poor at church recently, and they're feeling a little down because I told them we're moving next June. So they had no energy to spend on a bazaar.

"I know - we need a party" said one of them at the October meeting. "Let's have a pot-luck supper instead."

"When we were in Kimberley saying goodbye to the Archbishop they were having a silent auction," said Myrna. "Let's do that to earn some money."

So they beat the bushes for treasures to auction off and phoned everyone to let them know about the pot-luck. It seemed to work.

We had about 45 people at supper tonight, quite a few of them not among our regulars. We had a feast of a meal - amazingly good stuff. Perogies, Kenyan rice, Mexican rice, baked beans, baked turkey with stuffing, salads, desserts - too much, as usual. When people came in they were given half a Christmas card and were told to find the person with the other half. This was the person they were to sit with during supper. That worked very well, with good mixing of people who don't normally hang out together.

After we ate Dempsey McKenna played her violin, and a few people told terrible jokes, and we sang some good old hymns. We handed out half the items that had been bid on, then sang some more, then handed out the rest, then sang some more, then went home - slowly, with lots of standing around and gossiping. It was a good time.

We probably earned about $600, which is less than the bazaar usually makes, but more than it would have made this year. And, more important, we had a good time together. It was worth doing.