By Jim Towers, M.J.A., J.D.
On Saturday October 17 the tents went up on the brick plaza in every color Academy sells: orange, maroon, navy, and white. By late morning, the walk between St. Mark’s and its education building had turned into a small-town market.
A chalkboard sign said Brush & Bloom. Down the row, a vertical sign said simply SOURDOUGH, and the menu board beside it ran from classic to jalapeño to cranberry. One table held handmade pottery, with bowls and mugs on teal cloths. Another held wire racks of deco-mesh wreaths in every color a front door could want. Framed paintings hung in a white tent. Potted plants sat on a tablecloth printed with tulips.
None of it was fancy. That was the point.
Out on the lawn, the children had their own fair. A bounce house shaped like a giant pumpkin sat under the oak. Ladder ball games stood in the grass. A girl in a baseball jersey, number 5, ran between them. A father and daughter walked the plaza working on popsicles. A woman with a pink bubble gun filled the air between the tents, and for a while everybody near her was walking through bubbles.
Around them, the pumpkin patch kept working the way it always does: self-serve, cashless, and open around the clock, according to the banner.
The best moment was the least planned. Four volunteers stood at the corners of an orange canopy, raising it by hand, with the church tower behind them. Nobody was directing. Everybody knew what to do.
That is what a church bazaar is. It’s not a festival a company runs. It’s a congregation and its neighbors putting up their own tents, selling what they made, and watching each other’s kids.
St. Mark’s has had reason to celebrate this fall. Seven years after the 2019 fire, the church has paid off the loan that rebuilt it. On this morning, nobody was talking about that. They were talking about bread and wreaths and whose kid was in the bounce house.
All in all it was a fun filled day for all who came. As usual in the st mark’s tradition all were welcome. The kids had a wonderful time families can enjoy a brief moment in the sun. This has been going on at this church for a very very long time. People of kind coming together enjoying the skills crafts and trades that make up the region and the neighborhood that is the way the height has always worked and that is the Heights the way it is supposed to work.
St. Mark’s United Methodist Church is at 600 Pecore St. Sunday worship is at 8:30 and 11 a.m. More at smumc.org.
Photos: Jim Towers / Houston Heights Independent
Photos: Jim Towers / Houston Heights Independent
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