“I was worried about the Crocodiles in the River…”

Back to the Sunday market. It was such an eye opening experience coming from the land of Grocery stores and department stores to the world of the Sunday market. First off I love grocery stores. My grandfather when I was little owned a grocery store in Cambridge Wisconsin. I used to love following Grandpa around his store as he would close up or open up for business. He hurt his knee in the late 1960’s and had sold the store. But I have many fond memories of grocery stores. This however was a startling change. The Sunday market was a cacophony not only of sound but smells and sights. (I guess that wouldn’t be a pure Cacophony but still) I loved going to the Sunday Market, or the night market or for that matter the floating market. They were all different. They were all amazing.

“Do you want to take the big boat or the canoe?” “I’ll take the canoe,” said the soon to be wet kid. Yes that is me at the front of the boat ahead. Yes the boat is in the process of sinking. Yes we did end up in the river. Several times in fact that day. It was on a trip to Chang Mai in Northern Thailand. The Canoe was a traditional Thai craft and really quite fun to be in. But if you got above a certain speed, water lapped into the boat and it sank.

At the end of this journey we got out of the smaller boat, my family (Mom, Dad, Barb and Lynne) were riding in the boat that the picture of me was taken from. Safe in a stable larger boat. Dad, smiling as we were out of the river looked at me and said “I’m glad your safe. I was worried about the crocodiles in the river.” Yes that was his sense of humor. Yes I did recoil in horror when he said that and of course he laughed. I hated it when he got me like that.

Over time human beings have designed a number of ways to move things from one place to another. The piece of Teak wood used by this person allows the filling to the two baskets, sometimes as much as 50 pounds in each basket and move that material from one place to another quickly. Used in farms, construction and just about anything else dad was fascinated by this. He bought one for mom, but she never carried baskets with it. We just had it as a display item for many years. Different world, different time and a chance to learn. Every culture has something unique about them that makes them special. Sometimes its just locating crocodiles. Sometimes it moving things from one place to another. Or setting up a shop on a Sunday to sell goods.

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Remembering Thailand