Flowering Basil from the Point Richmond Farmer's Market,
Wednesday, August 10, 2011.
The Point Richmond Farmers Market is still alive and kicking, recovering from a temporary setback in the form of a Vice Mayor refusing to allow a car to be towed out of that area a few weeks ago. (It was probably because he is so tall, that he was able to do it.)
Mrs. Womack is getting a little pushed out of shape.
You could be the President of the United States but if the police cadet did not recognize you, you would not have a chance in hades of stopping the police from towing a car. (Remember when President Reagan got shot, he said he hoped he was being taken to a clinic where the doctor was a Republican. We do not know which political party the Vice Mayor is in, since it is a non-partisan office.
Mrs. Womack's dog Westie does not
protect her at the Farmer's Market because dogs are
not allowed in the Farmer's Market. Mrs. Womack
does not need protection at the Farmer's
Market because Mrs. Womack is not doing
anything wrong at the Farmer's Market, so she
doesn't need protection.
No one has yet addressed an emergency such as an elected official being shot and taken to an emergency room. Presumably if it is safe enough for President Obama to visit Richmond, it is safe enough for the average citizen. I do not like to think about what would happen to us if President Obama was shot, God forbid. I think we would all be singing, "Happy days are gone for good.")
Some police cadets may not understand that in Richmond, the chain of command goes up through the city council who have police captains in elected office, or at least that is what I have been told. Does that mean that Vice Mayor Tom Butt is actually a cop? Darned if I know. I think that the
Chief has a higher rank than the City Council but I have also noticed that they feel as though they can command him to appear before them at council meetings with less respect than a Chief of Police deserves. A school teacher would not last long if she addressed her students the way some city councilpersons address the Chief of Police. Whatever they had in the air at the Richmond Art Center the night they legalized pot has worn off, thank goodness.
Ms. Womack took her self portrait in the mirror
and then fooled around with it in Photoshop.
This is Mrs. Womack's self portrait with camera.
In 1972 I was told that if
I wanted any information from the police, I had
to go to the Chief. When I did that, he told
me I had to do my own investigation. I wasn't
going to write my stories off the police blotter.
The city council is setting a bad example for the youth in this town if they treat the Chief with disrespect. They can keep their personal opinion of him and their attitude towards authority in general to themselves if they care about the people they represent, because everyone knows that you will get better results no matter what you are trying to do, if you act respectfully towards law enforcement. They have problems with their attitude towards Chevron executives also, which makes life harder for everyone around here.
This could only happen in California.
In fact I get tired of hearing swear words and sexual innuendos from people I have always been polite to in the many years I have been here, just because I do not agree with everything they say and do, but I have no idea what to do about it or how to make them stop that attitude. You'd think a person who taught public school for nearly five years would be able to get people to stop swearing at her and making passes at her, but in real life, I do not have a principal or a counselor to send them to. However, I can tell you one thing. I do not have to vote for them if they run for public office. I'd be pretty stupid to do that, wouldn't I? That's why we have a secret ballot in this country. I certainly would not have any customers if I treated people that way. I was in business with a small newspaper for ten years. I did not last ten years in business by being disrespectful to my customers. I was respectful and honest. If people have a business in a store, they have to be concerned with who is walking into their store putting stuff into the air in the store. I wear perfume but that's all it is. There's nothing in it except ordinary perfume or cologne. If you don't like people who smell good, then I am sorry I offended you. It's part of who I am.
You might notice that some businesses keep their doors open for fresh air even when it is so cold that the counterperson is shivering. I guess it seems welcoming to customers to have the doors open as well. Do you just take things like that for granted? I don't. Total strangers they have never seen before walk into their store every day and are treated with respect and dignity by store owners. If they don't do that, eventually they don't have a business anymore. If you don't like strangers and you never want to meet anyone new, you certainly would not like working in a store, or a restaurant or a bar for that matter. As a former small newspaper publisher, those stores were my advertisers. I really like those stores a lot, and other local businesses as well. You'd have to work overtime to turn me against them. I think capitalism is great. I didn't think that way when I was growing up, because my dad was against us spending much money, but when I became part of the business community, I changed my thinking about business owners.
Pink cloud over Richmond Refinery.
I worked for a local union in San Jose for a few months back in the 1970's. They hired me so they could have someone to take the blame for all the changes they made, like taking printing business away from an old established printer and giving it to one of their radical political friends (their description). I argued against it but they did it anyway. I suggested that they move only half the printing until they could be sure the new printer could handle the work, but they paid no attention to me at all and did what they wanted. They gave me the title of office manager when I only had the salary and responsibilities of a clerk. I was working for a public employees union but they did not give me any health benefits. They were such cowards that they tried to place blame for what they were doing on a very ill, nearly helpless welfare mother who could not have fought back even if she knew what was going on.
Arriving at 2:30 p.m. I saw the police cadet car parked in the market so I took a picture of it. A police cadet is still a police officer even if they call the person a cadet.
On the other side of the market was a red car. The vendors had not yet finished unloading their goods so this might have been a vendor's car. I didn't ask.
In about 20 minutes the car was gone.
Here is Kim making a purchase from Juan from Luhan Farms of Hughson, CA (near Modesto).
Left to right are Max and Tony of Half Moon Bay orchids and Cory who is from Auburn. She came down here to help a friend get through neck surgery.
Here Shelley is buying nectarines from Monica of Cipponeri family farms.
Kathy Scott, owner of The Art Lounge, is making a statement with her bunny ears.
Myrna is admiring the African textiles and other goods sold by Fanta and her daughter Deeja.
Michel Saga was entertaining the crowd with his barrel organ. He is from Boyes Hot Springs, CA His web site is www.myspace.com/parismusique.
Nit (with pink skirt, Donovan, Alan and Alexa. Alan
and Alexa are with
Doof, a food art program for children. They were making
animals from vegetables. When I do it, I have the kids
make dioramas. When I do it, I do it for free.
What are people willing to pay me for? They are willing to pay me for face painting. That is what Linda Drake of Arts of Point Richmond urged me to do several years ago. This year I paid about $150 for some professional face painting paints and started painting faces a couple of months ago. No one else was doing it at the Point Richmond Farmers Market at that time.
Mrs. Womack paints her own face in the mirror.
People wanted to give me money to paint kids' faces, perhaps because I have a teaching credential in art, so they know that I care about kids, not just about making money.
This is Mrs. Womack's self-portrait
when I was not so heavy.
I went to the City of Richmond to get my business license renewed so I could have a business painting faces and do it legitimate. I did not work last year because I caught smallpox while tutoring at Grant Elementary school. Kaiser calls it shingles. The person at the city wanted me to sign a paper saying I would confine my business to my home, which is usually done with childcare businesses, but I do not have a childcare business even though I have taken most of the childcare courses required for that. When I pointed out that I could not sign that because I wanted to do face painting at festivals, he said I should sign anyway because lots of people had businesses where they conducted their business outside their homes but they did all their bookkeeping in their home. He said he thought I really needed a peddler's license, but he did not offer me one: he said I should just renew the one I already had.
Mrs. Womack thinks that painting
her own face is fun too.
I compare this to a cop directing traffic at an intersection where there are traffic signals. Who do you obey? The cop or the traffic signals? The cop of course. So I signed the paper and I sent in my $351, which is all the money I have. Plus I had ordered some pearlescent face paints because that's what the people in San Pablo said they wanted and that's what the face painters at Mainstreet were using. That was another $75. I cannot afford to keep giving people money and not making any. I think if they want me to have a peddlers license they should apply that $351 to a peddlers license, not an in-home business, because I am not doing any business in my home.
Mrs. Womack learned how to look in the mirror
and put on makeup when she was a teenager, but
her mother would not let her use much makeup.
Her mother liked the "natural" look. Mrs. Womack's
mother is so conservative that she would prefer
Mrs. Womack paint on her arm instead
of her face. Some people think face painting
is bad, but they are a very small minority.
It's a cultural difference. They just do not like
artists at all. Mrs. Womack
does not paint lipstick on children unless it
is part of an animal design from the face painting book.
Mrs. Womack usually wears lipstick herself, but not always.
In fact, some Muslim children did not want Mrs. Womack
to wear lipstick while teaching, so she stopped
for a while. But she did not like someone
else's religion telling her how to live her life, so
she started wearing lipstick again.
Rainbow with heart and clouds on my arm.
People usually give face painters $2 plus a tip for painting faces. The child might give the face painter $2 and the parent gives a tip of $5 if they like the work. I never turn a child away for not having any money. I give the children the face painting book for them to chose from. It costs more if there is more painting work done, like full white face with an animal or scary design or a Spiderman, which a lot of kids want. A full Spiderman face means covering the face with red paint, then drawing the web design on it. But most kids are satisfied with smaller spider pattern on their cheek. I do not like painting kids' eyes and I try to avoid it unless it's a special design and the parents say it's OK. The kids do not demand that I paint on their eyelids. For a small design like cherries or a rainbow, it's ony $2.
Mrs. Womack hopes she is sending you
some good vibes.
I am what I am. I have been faithful to my husband for the last 20 years even though he has lived somewhere else for the last 10 years and is no longer interested in me. So please don't try to make it look like I am doing something else. If there is someone else out there doing bad stuff and saying they are me, there is not much I can do about it if I do not even know about it except for a few swear words here and there by people I have always been polite and respectful to. It wouldn't be the first time that happened to me. That has happened to me before. Did you think you were going to get something else when you got up close to me? I am not selling anything except face painting. Also, last spring the county hired me to teach court and community kids, but then they tried to get me to teach special ed kids which I am not qualified to do, and I wouldn't do it. It was a bait and switch. I stopped answering their telephone calls. I want to keep my teaching credential. They wouldn't even let me toilet the kids when I was teaching preschool at Nystrom. They had parents from the community hired to do that. So what makes you think I am going to toilet a big special ed kid I have never seen before? I am not going to do it.
Here are some more good vibes coming your way.
I just do not want to be in the path of your anger.
You do not have the right to hurt me. Husbands do
not have the right to punish their wives and
parents do not have the right to run their
children's lives after they grow up.
I will be doing face painting at the Point Richmond music festival this Friday. I will be working for tips. There may be more than one person doing face painting, which is just fine with me. The more the merrier.
Mrs. Womack likes the small dragon fly
and butterfly patterns the face painters were
doing at the Mainstreet event, and the shiny paint
they were using, so Mrs. Womack charged
some more special paint on her credit card,
so Point Richmond kids could get what all the
other kids were getting.
At a Nevin Center health festival, the recreation director gave me $40 to paint faces, and did not specify how many I should paint or how long I should stay. I wound up painting 60 kids in six hours, and staying all day, so some of that was a donation. The kids like getting their faces painted because people look at them and smile, so they are doing it for the smiles. Smiles are a very powerful medicine for kids, and don't cost anything.
Mrs. Womack thinks old people would be happier
if they got a little design painted on their faces,
and it washes off easily.
They needed more than one face painter at Davis Park in San Pablo at the health fair this month because there were still kids standing in line to get their faces painted when the event was over, and I was painting as fast as I could. I painted 30 children in three hours--for free. It was a donation because it was a health fair. I got a nice letter from Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, thanking me for my work in San Pablo. Maybe I will get a plastic sign and put the letter in it so you can see it. It's nice to get thanked by someone for my work, instead of people swearing at me and treating me badly.
Mrs. Womack was working on red, white, and blue
designs for July 4.
You will notice that I have not put any photos of kids here on my blog. If I eventually do put up some photos, it will be with the parents' signed permission. However, I strongly urge parents to take photos of their kids. It is good for the kids' self-esteem to take photos of them, and also to have a record of their growing years that they can enjoy looking at when they grow up. You parents will want your children to have some happy memories of childhood that they can remember, so be sure to remind your kids of how much fun they had when you took them somewhere nice and how happy they were when you gave them something good. "Remember when" stories about happy times will help the kids remember the happy times when they grow up, and not just the bad times which tend to stay in our minds without any help...
Mrs. Womack thinks that a rainbow and a unicorn
improves the appearance of her old face, which
has been around the block for 68 years.
I went back to the Farmers Market because I had some happy times giving free art lessons a couple of years ago before I caught small pox. However, I do need to get paid for my work, and people were not willing or able to pay me for that, even though they brought their kids to me. Also I need to make at least enough money to pay for my painting supplies and my business license.
Mrs. Womack and her dog Westie. Two old dogs
having fun with technology. Westie thinks he has the
right to remain silent, but they can make him talk with
bark stix. However, I don't give him bark stix, because
usually he barks too much without any special food
with bark medicine in it. So normally the problem
is not making him talk, it's shutting him up.
