by Ruth and Ray Tilley & family
My daughter-in law, Elaine, attended the first Red Hill Market in September, 1975, with her cousin, Heather, but only as interested locals, not as stallholders. They liked what they saw and returned the next month with some vegies to sell from the boot of the car. Selling from the back of the car lasted only a few markets before the farm truck had to be used to satisfy the demand for fresh vegetables.
We have memories of those early days. We remember lifting up lost young ones onto our truck at its elevated site on the corner where the old basketball courts were. From there they could see over most of the market to look for parents or be seen by them.
One day a customer was querying us as to the suitability of the size of our onions for pickling. A lady sitting at the stall next to ours joined in the discussion, saying they were the size she always used. Thanks, Dame Phyllis Frost, for helping us make that sale.
Other sales that we remember making were baby carrots to Tony Barber and spring onions to Edwin Maher. Peter Couchman wasn’t hungry. Can’t win them all!
Another recollection we have is the making of a snowman on the tennis courts by the few who were at the market the day of the big, freezing hailstorm SPECIAL Queens Birthday weekend market.
Thanks for the memories as sellers. From now on we come as buyers and lookers. (The Tilley Family retired in March, 1995, after almost twenty years as stallholders at the Red Hill Community Market.)