I went to the Niagara Falls farmer’s market yesterday morning. Mom wanted to have a look around, perhaps get something, but mostly chat up the vendors to get a feel for when the various fruits and vegetables would be ready this season. I know that she likes to get there early so all the offerings won’t be picked over leaving only the stuff you wouldn’t want anyway. Despite never having been there, I couldn’t see it being very large so I asked, “How long will we be there? Maybe a half hour?” She told me that there was no way we’d be there that long. Perhaps a half hour including the drive there and back. Fair enough. I set my alarm for 8:00 am so after my shower, we were on our way before 8:30.

On the south-east block of the Main and Ferry Street intersection, the area behind the businesses on the busy streets is used for public parking six days a week. On the seventh, most of the parking is given over to the farmers to sell their goods. It’s early in the season, and we went early, so there were as many vendors as customers … and the area that remained available for parking was largely empty. Even so, the line where the side-street and the market met was strung with pylons crowned with no parking signs. People are lazy, and given the opportunity, many would make the side-street all but impassable to avoid a half-minute walk.

Indeed, the laziest among the lazy will still park as close as they can to avoid walking, despite the no parking signs. And while we were there, one gentleman did exactly this. Even my mother took notice, though not for his ignoring the signs, but rather for what he was driving. His car looked a lot like this:

It’s a Ferrari Testarossa. The car is worth less than half its $220,000 showroom price but they are no means inexpensive. A quick check on the web shows most examples selling for $75,000 to $100,000. Even more notable than the price is the look of the automobile. It’s an exotic, through and through. Not the type of car you expect to see at a farmer’s market. Still it makes a bit of sense because I’m sure the driver combined the market-run with a bit of a weekend drive.

It was nice to see the car, reminding me of when I first grew interested in cars. The Testarossa first hit the streets in 1984.

As we left, I saw the driver returning to his car with his purchases in two plastic shopping bags. I thought to myself that to pick up some fresh food, one certainly doesn’t need a 4.9 litre, 12 cylinder engine mounted behind the passenger compartment … but it has never been about need.

Photo by Michael Price, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.