Third Thursday in Hillsdale

Last week I attended Third Thursday in Hillsdale, an event organized by the Hillsdale Main Street program. It is an evening when businesses stay open late and there are sidewalk sales, music, and more. Hungry, my companions and I started with the Hillsdale Food Park.This food cart pod is so brand spanking new that just two of the three food carts were open for business that evening. There was Violetta’s Hamburgers and Truffle Fries that uses locally-sourced sustainable ingredients,and local, seasonal, sustainable tacos and more from Radiant Life.My companions enjoyed burgers,and some intense french fries:I had a black bean taco that was vegan, gluten-free, and absolutely delicious.The prices were appealing, too.The space behind the food carts is still under construction. The soil has been fertilized and seeded with grass that will sprout when it rains this Fall.At the far edge of the space is either a work of public art or a lunch delivery business, I am not sure which.I hope the photograph above looks like giant letters V-O-V-L-E and some vintage adult tricycles, because that’s just what it was. And there is a Free Speech table here,with some Hillsdale free speech.Some young people on the sidewalk were talking and singing a few words now and then. I asked them if they would sing a song, and they joyfully gave an impromptu performance of Amavolovolo, a South African folk song (listen to the Drakensberg Boys’ Choir performing it here if you like).Their sound was fabulous. They are members of the Wilson High School Advanced Vocal Ensemble, WAVE. After this spiritual refreshment, we took a stroll through the Hillsdale business district.The sidewalk improvements are beautiful.Hillsdale’s business district is a beautiful vibrant community, combined with just a dash of strip mall to keep things interesting.I’m not sure what to say about this huge thing!Indigo Traders lured us into the store with a lovely sidewalk display.As it happened, no, we had not yet tried a Turkish towel. Samir, the owner, was on hand to tell us why we needed one. It turns out he was right! We chose a soft purple.Other Worlds Games was full of activity,and was selling comic books for just 50 cents!The Food Front terrace was a busy place.In addition to my favorite grocery store,a woman named Carol Becker (psu25042@pdx.edu) had her hand-made jewelry designs for sale,The Commons Brewery provided samples,and Joshua English provided some great musical entertainment (a sample of his music is here).We browsed a sale at Paloma Clothing before heading home.As we walked home, we stopped to watch part of the Wilson-Roosevelt JV football game. This picture also shows how smokey the air is right now, due to the forest fires in central Oregon.It was a fun evening. The final Third Thursday of 2012 will be on October 18th, from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. According to the website, the theme is “Brew Ha Ha” – beer and comedy. Sounds good to me.