Auburn's Mt. Vernon Grange Flea Market stands test of time

It's early morning and the dawn light is not showing yet. I'm slowed awake, feeling the block and fog still lingering in my head as I feel consciousness start to build. I'm moving like a big, dumb moose: half-ambling in the near dark, trying not to stumble and wake my family as I find my footing. It's going to be hot, I can tell, and I gotta get my butt in gear: I'm due to be at the Mount Vernon Grange Hall by 6 a.m., giving me just 40 minutes to get dressed, pack something to eat for the long day ahead and make a stop on the way to pick up doughnuts. The drive is only 10 minutes, but I'm still kind of pushing it. And the day ahead is important – one of our most important days of the month as a matter of fact. It's the day of our monthly flea market. For close to a year, I've been doing these flea markets at the Mount Vernon Grange Hall off of Bell Road, with just a cursory bit of knowledge about how a flea market even works (the image of Ferris Bueller playing a clarinet comes to mind). It's been a trial by fire, sure, but I'm optimistic the learning curve is behind us. My team – newbies like me – is solid, and everybody has heart, which speaks more than experience sometimes. Late last year, the California State Grange (the entity overseeing operations of all halls like us) threw a curveball: We needed to tighten our belt, reorganize and right the ship – or lose the Mt. Vernon Grange altogether. Given I was not there for the dramatics, I've been routinely treated during my tenure to the Rashomon-style roulette of differing (sometimes conflicting) accounts that led to the state's decision for a redo, but years of disorganization and double dipping by past governing bodies caused the Grange to fall into chaos. We were reorganized and guided by a very sweet husband and wife duo working for the state for a number of months. I still feel I am the most unlikely – especially within this environment – to be president. Admittedly, I had no idea the organization even existed before that faithful day a couple years ago when my partner Nicole and I, looking for places to hold some of our events, happened to stumble upon the tiny white building off of Bell Road. Charming as it was, it definitely lacked cohesion – which was more than obvious for us from our first meeting on. Being a part of the organization gave us discounts – incentive enough – so we joined, and slowly but surely rose the ranks, assuming leadership roles within a year. Our tenancy came with some "consequences," as they sometimes do – one of those being the organization running the flea market for the past few years was no longer interested in going along with what the state mandated our chapter to follow. There was some bad blood; for our part, I'll take responsibility for any roughness that came with this transition. It wasn't always the easiest, but it could have been a lot worse. In the end, even when people walk away from the table, I prefer it if they don't look back in anger. Once the transition was complete, we were left with taking up the mantle in order to get the flea market back to where it was. There were moments where this seemed insurmountable, especially in those first early months when we had inclement weather and negative word of mouth. In my experience, transitions of power never look great even with good people. Because of that, my strategy was to play the long game a little bit (my Taoist philosophy helped). Actually, a lot a bit. So we set out doing the best we could with what we had. It was a couple of months in when two past vendors happened to be driving by and saw our flea market happening, decided to check us out and showed up randomly for our January Flea Market. Meeting them was one of our favorite highlights. For this story, I'll call them Sam and Mary. Through miscommunications in various ways, they'd been led to believe the flea market was closed due to new leadership. That opinion had already started forming in the minds of others as well. To their credit, Sam and Mary deciding to take a chance and check us out has become one of the best things; their friendship in our business relationship has come to define the heart of this flea market. And as I said before, sometimes having heart carries the day more than having experience does. Our relationship with vendors has grown steadily ever since. We're getting ready to close in on a year now; I'm getting ready to head out the door this morning to do what I normally do: pick up the things, open the doors, greet everybody on the way in. Running this hasn't always been easy. But it's been worth it. Meeting people from town, vendors and customers alike, is the reason for it. No matter how empty my cup feels, it never fails to fill back up. And I'm all the better for it. Being a transplant from the Bay Area, getting to understand the fabric of the town where me and my family live is something that just warms the heart. And it's really something the Grange stands for: a place where people and community can gather, where everyone can be welcome, and everybody can feel like they have a place to go to. One of the most important things in life is having something to look forward to. The flea market for a lot of people happily is one of those things. Our next flea market is this Saturday, Oct. 4, at 3185 Bell Road from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. with live music and food as well as wonderful vendors. Come rain or shine, we're there every first Saturday. There is no charge for entry and parking.