It’s not often you see a large truck parked in Pioneer Courthouse Square, but that was the case last Friday when I was walking around downtown during the lunch hour. I don’t do that often enough, but it was a lovely day and I had a few errands to run.

The truck was surrounded by a large group of people that was growing ever larger as a line started forming on one side. Curiosity got the best of me so I walked over to investigate the commotion. It turns out farmers from Hermiston, Oregon were in Portland to promote their produce and were handing out watermelons, potatoes and cantaloupes.

Everyone was so happy and city councilors were being interviewed and people were skipping away with bags of goodies. It was incredibly inspiring in its joyousness so I started snapping a couple photos, particularly of this older gentleman farmer whose personality was infectious. He just made you smile watching him and I was grinning from ear to ear.

No sooner did I lower my camera that he looked at me and said… “here you need a watermelon.” A bit surreal, but made even more surreal when a photographer asked to take a picture of me and my watermelon followed by a reporter asking me a few questions. That was nothing to the scene that occurred just a few minutes later when I started walking through downtown holding a watermelon. It was so large I had to cradle it like a baby, causing people who hadn’t witnessed the impromptu farmer’s market in the Square to look at me like I had two heads. But I didn’t care. I was still smiling and thinking how great a place Portland is to be in the summer.