The Old Sun Shop

Fieldwork Week One: The Old Sun Shop

It’s around noon, partly cloudy and a bit humid since it just rained about an hour ago.  Over all its cooler than most days this week. A few Hispanic families come in and out of the shop within the first 30 minutes. Most are from El Paso and are just looking around before they go grab a bite to eat.

An older white woman (around 60) walks in with her husband right behind another Hispanic family that just came in as well. The Hispanic family is very loud and chat about their day plans and discuss where they would like to go eat. They are in the shop to just pass time and enjoy the day and not really shop as they only glance at the products and admire a few pieces of metal art, which includes some 3 foot suns.

The White woman sees only half the shop when she reaches the jewelry section in the back. She stands there for a while looking and examining different pieces of jewelry. She sees some fashion earrings near the bottom. They are silver (almost in a Zia shape) and have designs on them that really shout out New Mexico. They also have a small and dark coral bead at the bottom of them and are worth 16 dollars. She picks them up and doesn't seem to think twice about them as she takes them up to the register to pay for them.  After the purchase, the white woman walks very happily to her husband who seems a little bored standing by the door but gives her a warm smile and they leave holding hands.

Later on the shop is once again empty and an older woman, also white with salt and pepper hair comes in all wired up. She walks fast, talks fast and seems to be on a mission. She starts trying on some Native American ointments and gossips to the owner about another store who is also selling the same product. It turns out that salt and pepper is also an employee for another store. She and the owner converse about a variety of things. It seems as though all the stores on the block need to be a little competitive to make good business.

A middle aged Hispanic women from El Paso comes in with a huge brown hat that covers most of her face. She is followed in by an older woman with white hair who is the hat lady’s mother. She seems to only speak in Spanish. A young tall man comes in with them who is the hat Lady’s son. He speaks in fluent English. The hat lady walks up to the register and starts to ask if we sell a very specific cream. Her Spanish accent is very thick that it is very difficult to understand her. I tell her that I have never heard of it but show her the Native American ointments that could help with what she wants. She is very open and starts to share with me that she works very hard in her garden and in her house and has very bad conditioned hands. She shares lots of stories as she samples the ointments. She seems to like them but she feels they are too little and expensive for their size. Finally she decides that she did not come all the way from El Paso for nothing so she decides to take a few ointments for her and her mother. She takes a few brochures that give a little more information on the product and plans to show them to her neighbor. She leaves very happily, full of energy and content with her purchase.

In between 1:30 P.M. and 3:00 P.M. the shop was very slow, almost dead with the exception of one big crowd around 2:20 P.M. It seems as though tourist and visitors are off having a late lunch since the parking lots are full but the flow in the shop is very slow. However, for being a cloudy and bit stormy day it’s quite a moving Saturday.

When the flow of customers picks up again I realize that the majority of people make a remark about how good it smells in the shop as they walk in the door. I let them know it is our candle burning and most of them went to take a look at the candles for sale with the same scent. I also realize that a lot of people notice the ceramic happy pigs at the entrance of the store. They all exclaim how cute and adorable they are either when they first come in or as they leave the shop.

A group of five older women (around their 60’s) come in chatting and looking quite colorful. They all have hairstyles that seem to be from the 80’s or early 90’s. The 80’s girls take their time and look at almost everything in the shop. They look very relaxed enjoying each other’s company, laughing, and conversing about a verity of things. They all seem to take a longer time looking at jewelry more than anything else in the store. They converse about the jewelry but did not seem to converse about any other product (besides the occasional hey look at this) that I could hear. The 80’s girls left happily continuing their relaxing day.

Another group of people walk in. Two of them are married (around 40’s) and serve in the Military. The Husband collects Kokopellis and the couple decide to buy a light copper metal Kokopelli with blue beads worth 25 dollars. A friend of theirs whom is from Ireland asks to see some jewelry. I politely ask him to repeat that because his accent is very heavy and extremely difficult to understand. His friend then tells me what he said and tells me that most people have a hard time understanding him. Ireland guy looks at a Native American piece made of white thin rocks with turquoise beads in them. It has the Hawaiian look to it. He looks at it and sees how it would look on him. I am a little surprised since I see no sign of jewelry on him and he doesn't seem as though he was shopping for someone else. He puts the necklace back and the group leaves continuing their conversation.

Around 3:40 P.M. I can see through the window that it becomes quite windy, it feels cooler, and dark clouds come by looking as if it will rain. Yet people still remain looking and shopping around till closing time. I wonder if the cooler weather (even if a little stormy) causes people to be out more. I wonder if the heat here is too much for some tourist and even some locals.