Bad karma buggy

I've been frequenting the monthly First Monday Trade Days in Canton, Texas, for over 20 years. In all that time, I've never had the experience I had twice (twice!) this past Friday.

At Canton there are the "grounds", where sellers set up tents and tables for display and there are the Arbors, a series of metal buildings like long open-sided barns where sellers can set up their booths more easily. Some are in the same place for years and have a clientele.

In either case, it is common to leave your shopping buggy outside the tent or booth and wander in. Hopefully, you make a purchase, stash it in your buggy and be off to the next buying opportunity.

Buggies are never touched by anyone else. Never seen it. Never heard of it. Everyone is happy to keep their own treasures, thank you very much.

But on Friday, as I made my way back to my buggy outside a tent, I saw that my water was in the bottom of the basket attached to my main buggy and that the water holder was gone! Stolen! I looked around and saw a man headed into the booth, my holder in his hand! "Sir!" I practically shouted. "Did you take my water holder?"

Well, yes he had. He thought it was for sale. He was on his way to find out how much from the seller. Really? I had little choice but to believe him, secure my holder and buggy, and march on. But how could he mistake my buggy for a sale item? Was he a newbie? Didn't look like a newbie.

On we go. Early afternoon, my friend wants to backtrack to the Arbors and make a purchase she's been mulling over. Her buggy, smaller than mine and already laden, will not hold what she wants. We trade buggies, mine, alas, still being basically empty.

When we meet up an hour later she starts the conversation with the fact that my buggy has bad karma. Why? Because someone waltzed off with it while it was parked outside a booth in the Arbors.

She and the dealer were searching frantically. She realized that the abandoned buggy by the booth was probably left there by the culprit, but mistaken identity was ruled out. It was an empty buggy whereas my friend had filled mine to overflowing. Just as she was giving her phone number to the dealer so he could call her when whoever had taken the buggy realized the mistake and brought it back, it was returned by a very embarrassed woman. How could one mistake a full and heavy buggy for a lighter-weight one? I guess we each get in our own little worlds at Canton.

But bad karma buggy has been given a stern talking-to about strangers and we'll see how it goes next time we venture out.