The Corvallis Fall Festival was quite an amazing experience! Each year over 30,000 people walk through the 170 booths-buying gifts for themselves, gifts for others. My favorite thing about the festival was talking to people and hearing their excitement about particular pillows. Owls and Peace Signs were the top sellers. The owls were not much of a surprise, but each time a peace sign walked away with a smiling patron, I was overjoyed.
One girl who was probably thirteen or fourteen came to my booth in the last hour on the last day and said she really loved the square peace sign pillow, but she didn't have any money. Then she showed me some beautiful jewelry and said her dad had a booth where he sold them. She offered to watch my booth because I'd said it had been so busy I'd barely been able to walk around to see all the other booths. Then she looked around a bit more and asked if I'd be willing to do a trade for jewelry. She told me she needed to check with her father, Robert Keene (owner of Robert Keene Jewelry from Washington), and she'd be back. When she returned she said he said it would be okay. I gave her the pillow and she left with a big smile. I later visited him booth and chose a gorgeous blue necklace. Funny enough, he also made fabulous peace sign earrings.
