JP Patches Joins Lenin in Fremont

Well. Today, Sunday, August 17 I did my last Fremont Sunday Market until I return in, I estimate, will likely be sometime around 2018. Today's Fremont experience was the most interesting of the three during my month-long stay here. Today there was more bizarre people watching than in all my other days combined.

There is a disturbing fad here that has guys stretching their ear lobes to ridiculous lengths. Today I saw what looked like an 80 year old man in a Seattle Skirt, hair spiked and dyed blonde, sporting a nose ring and those weird ear lobe expanders that eventually render your ears to being Dumbo the Elephant lookalikes. The 80 year old ultra cool dude had what appeared to be a teen-age girlfriend. He must be rich.

The guy in the photo above plopped down in front of us with another guy and started playing music and singing. I tried to have them moved. Then Lulu pointed out that the guitar strumming singing guy had a Texas Tattoo on his arm. So, I had to take a photo and share. These hapless Texas musicians did not have a single quarter dropped in their tip bucket. The temps were hot, the other guy eventually rendered himself shirtless to deal with the heat. When their allotted half hour was up, with no money earned, the shirtless guy ran out through my new best friend, Wendy's, knitting booth and threw up in the parking lot.

Today was a really BIG day in the Independent Republic of Fremont. A statue to northwest icon, JP Patches, was unveiled in a plaza in front of Adobe headquarters. I am currently very annoyed at Adobe due to their Flash Player's audio not working correctly and vexing a lot of people, including me.

That is the JP Patches statue below. With Gertrude. Only northwest raised people between 30 and 60 would get this. I overheard the cute girl in the photo, in a JP Patches nose, trying to explain it to a tourist from LA. Personally, I've always found JP Patches extremely annoying and was surprised he is still alive and that the Independent Republic of Fremont was dedicating a statue to him. Their Vladimir Lenin statue, that I get. But JP Patches?



The JP Patches statue is a short distance from another Fremont statue that has earned sort of international icon status, along with the Fremont Troll, that being the 'Waiting for the Interurban" statue. Locals regularly dress the people in the statue to reflect the season or what's going on in the world or Fremont.

So, that was my day today in Fremont. If you are ever in Seattle you'll wanna drop in on Fremont. Today we had people from all over the world and the U.S. drop in at the Lulu booth. And once more someone who reads my blog dropped in. She told me my whining about an Olympic swimmer foregoing cancer treatment so he could swim had sparked a lively discussion in her house.

I love the idea that I've sparked a lively discussion somewhere. I can sleep well tonight.