2001...A Market begins and where does Mitch Armstrong Nursery fit in ?!

Greetings all, and hope you are enjoying a lovely Labor Day weekend. As promised, a new Blog Post, to tell the story of the evolvement of Mitch Armstrong Nursery and Saturday Morning Market, downtown St. Pete.

 I hope you all will enjoy and endure, some memories that got us to this day, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2020. Meanwhile, we are going a-Plant Huntin !!!

 Blog Post Sept. 6, 2020

 I believe, for most of us, we all have defining moments in our lives. Recognizing them, is something different. For some, it can be quite natural progression...for others..it is a complete direction of a uturn or a new-turn ...And sometimes, it doesn't just happen to us, but affects many people..or even a community around us that we have grown up in. This short story is one of my memories and from my perspective only.

 In 2001, 2 women, looked out at a park space in downtown St. Pete, and they had a vision that would affect our little downtown of St. Pete forever. In those times, some energies were happening to change the face of many small and big cities.

Downtown St. Pete , was still a very small town but had a beautiful waterfront, with an iconic pier that had changed over the times. My Grandmother danced in the great halls of the Coliseum and the small ballroom of the multi storied pier building that stood at the end of a long cement walkway into our little Bay. I grew up in the 1950s/60s when St. Pete was considered "Gods waiting room". Downtown St. Pete was full of small housing for the elderly and a small assortment of specialty shops, an iconic theater and one historic and beloved department store. When I was young, my parents would think nothing of me boarding a city bus at 10 years old to ride to downtown to go to movies at the local theater, or visit the local ice creamery. In my teens, we scurried downtown on buses to the big Maas Brothers store to try on the latest fashions of the times, grab a small sandwich at the counter on the ground floor and venture into one small mysterious shop that smelled of incense and had exotic items from the Far East.

 The beauty of the shoreline and (limited) skyline of St. Pete was just a given. I grew up on the southside, visiting my Grandmother as she moved from one small apartment to another around the downtown. Small grocery stores sustained us, and there was not a thought of back then, the thought of a phrase of "farm to table" or people trying to actually think of striking out on their own, would have been a foreign thought. The thought of "fresh produce" was not in our vocabulary...we got our foods from the local grocery store and we were re thankful for it, or just, expected it....it was a given. 

Fast forward to the early 80's and 2 women had a vision..one of stepping out of the bounds, wanting to provide fresher goods outside the boundary of a grocery store, and, wanting to encourage and enable people with dreams, to start their own businesses. Thus, a Market was born. Now, you have to understand, there were NO community markets back then, now as we all know them. As they say, times were a'changin. People were starting to think of food differently, and, many people who had depended on working for companies for their whole lives, had dreams of owning and running their own businesses. A market was born of the thought of bringing fresh produce brought from a farmer, and fresh breads and pastries baked by someone with a passion to create in a kitchen. It was brought by local artisans that created on the side of their regular jobs.

 The first season of that new market, was held on a very windy, small side street of 2nd street, just off Central avenue, in downtown. The first season, a small group of vendors who had been participating in the favorite local Fall festival joined the ranks of this small start up market. The initial Fall season was cold and windy but the vendors were inspired and hardy. One of those first vendors, was a man named Mitch Armstrong who had a small solo nursery out of Palmetto FL. Mitch loved plants and loved the unique and he brought all sorts of exotic tropicals and butterfly friendly plants and the crowds loved him. Mitch had been operating out of the Pinellas Park Flea Market for years, but was in a place of redefining himself and how he wanted to do business and many of the other vendors were in a very similar place.


Many people have asked..where did the "heyplantman" come from ? Well, at the flea market, there was hundreds of vendors and everybody couldn't keep track of everybody's names so it was natural to call "HeyBreadman" and "HeyEgglady" etc, so "HeyPlantMan" was born.


 About midway thru that Fall season of the initial market, Mark Johnson had joined Gail and Judy in running the market and they continued their dreams, of which, the primary one was, We Need More Room! We want more vendors ! We want to create a unique spot where community can come together ! So, long story short, they petitioned the city to move the Market onto Central avenue for the next season.....this of course, would entail shutting down a major traffic throughway, and lots of logistics and most importantly, would give room to bringing in more vendors with their unique products to continue the growth. The organizers had visions of live music, fresh fresh food products, and a spot in the middle of chairs and tables for customers to hang out at, enjoy the music, enjoy the food, and visit with their neighbors.

 Now, all 3 organizers had full time jobs and work they were doing and to mount this effort, they decided to look for someone to help with dealing with the anticipated increase of vendors and running market day. That's where this little old southside girl came in. Through a contact, I had heard they were looking for someone to fill this role. Now, I won't bore you with all the past details of my life, suffice to say, I was in a place where I needed a "new moment" in my life. After years of office jobs, and then young motherhood, to caretaking elderly parents, I had been stretched to my limits and after both my parents passed, I was in a place of recovery from those strains and still trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up.

 Luckily, in my past, due to side perks of jobs, I had experience in organizing events,, bringing people together, and a very liberal, positive, outgoing view point of the possibilities of what all of us have the capabilities of doing, given our challenges. I was looking for something that would inspire me and take advantage of the natural care-taking nature I had but I had been "out of the work force" for a long time, so naturally, I was not super confident. I never had big dreams for my own life, I really just wanted to find a place where I could fit in, and I was having a hard time finding it. I was long married and had a very young son to raise but I was looking for a place to help me define myself as an individual outside the natural expectations of a women's life.

 And then...I had a "moment" ! Mark Johnson asked me to come down to a market day on 2nd street that Fall, and we talked about the job and what they were looking for. I was, for sure, quite intimated at the prospect of trying to fulfill the role they needed, and I wavered.

 In the middle of our conversation, Mark asked me to step to the side for a bit while he interviewed a new vendor prospect. Enter Miss Millie Taylor and her partner. Miss Millie had been baking for years, for her family, for her co-workers, she had the magic touch when it came to Sweet Potato Pie and cookies. Miss Millie was looking for a way to make some side money to help her family, continue her education and fulfill her dream of having her own business. I watched Mark interview Millie...I could not hear them, I could only watch the body language. They talked, Mark smiled, Millie smiled. I could tell from her body language, that she too, was nervous, just like me.

They ended their conversation, and Mark stepped off to the side to deal with something, but I continued to watch Millie. And what I saw was life changing for me, and for her. There are not many moments in ones life when you literally can see someone's life changing in front of you. What I saw was Millie turn to her partner, and they broke out in big beautiful smiles, hugging one another. And I could hear them then...."we can do this, we can do that, and oh, what about baking that special pie that everyone loves" and more some. They didn't care that they knew they had hurdles to cross with getting a official kitchen, or the extra hours it would entail or the sacrifices they and their families would have to face, they didn't care that early morning and late nights would become the norm, or that the elements of weather vending in an outdoor location could be challenging.....they only beamed Joy and Hope and New Beginnings ...and I said to myself "now That is something I want to be part of" !

I was soon to be honored by a trio of people who would indeed, affect the small town around me, that hired me to entrust that I would help them fulfill their mission of bringing a fresh, community market that could grow and thrive. Now, all I had to do, is meet the vendors and bring them onboard for our new ventures.

 And yes, I met Mitch that day...although neither one of us remembers ! I got his phone number, like all the others, and started my new job. But would Mitch answer his phone ? Nope...it just rang and rang. I got a new number..and it went to his daughters phone. Now, remember, this is pre-Cell phone days..not easy texting etc....his daughter answers...I ask for Mitch, she says, hmm...don't know where he is...I say, ok, let me call back another day....this goes on and on and on.

Meanwhile I am connecting just fine with all the other vendors, easy peasy. Now, I basically start pleading with Mitch's daughter to ask him to call me back. I tell her we need him ! Plants at the Market is important ! I tell her that we are giving him a prime spot at the top of the market, a garden oasis as it is, an area for our customers to enter the new market on Central amidst a mini Garden of Eden. Nothing, nada, for lots more time. Then, finally, one day Mitch calls me. I quickly fill him in, afraid he is going to hang up on me any second. I know nothing of his circumstances, I just know that I have been told by my bosses to get him there. I give him the date of the start of market, and he says he will come. He doesn't sound excited at all. I roll my eyes (of which a gazzilion times since, I have done). Does he show up ? Next installment !!