Do512 Family Featured Babymaker, Trish Morrison from MomCom, is sharing her story about how awesome Central Market can be for singles and families. Read her story about moving across town made her love her local Central Market even more.
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My love affair with Central Market started before dating my husband and years before we had our daughter. I remember driving west on Ben White while construction for the Westgate Central Market was just beginning. I exited and immediately made my way through the neighborhood directly behind what was once a run down strip mall. Central Market was coming to the neighborhood and I wanted in. It took a couple of years before I bought my house on Pack Saddle Pass but it was then that my love for Central Market took hold and began to blossom.
At least three times a week for five years I walked to Central Market to buy groceries, to have coffee with friends, drink wine and to listen to music. During that time Yoga Yoga moved into the revitalized strip center and I became a very fit yogi. I rented movies from Blockbuster (VHS then DVD!), I bought books and drank coffee at Boarders and perused the unique gifts at Whole Earth Provision. Nails and hair? No need to drive anywhere. They were right there too. Even my dentist, who I still use today, was there. Right next to Central Market Westgate, my lover who never seemed to disappoint.
When I sold my house and moved to the East Side, I mourned my life centered on Central Market. I had created so many memories there, including my first lunch with my now husband. I didn’t think I’d have that again. I wondered if I had made a mistake.
Everything happens for a reason and I now know that reason is my daughter. Westgate Central Market doesn’t have a playground. There isn’t room for kids to run wild or a deck big enough to dance on like it’s big sister, Central Market North. While I’m exactly 2.9 miles from the north location and it’s not quite as convenient as the Westgate location was, Central Market is a constant in my life.
Central Market North has been there for me since I was a lonely mother with an infant. I’d walk the aisles, buy myself a coffee, or people watch on the deck. As date nights disappeared, family nights outside on the Central Market deck listening to music replaced them.
As a toddler, Delilah learned how to climb and slide on the playground while I learned how to be a mother, both protective yet giving her the space to fall down and figure it out for herself. She has fed the ducks at the pond and climbed her first tree in Central Park. She has played ball, thrown Frisbees and attended festivals. Between the food, the music, the cooking classes, the Bali dancers, and Cinco de Mayo festivals, Delilah has experienced more culture at Central Market than many kids get in a lifetime.
And now at age six, Delilah is learning independence at Central Market. She goes to the bathroom on her own with only a “Make sure and wash your hands!” from me. She picks out food for dinner, chats with Nina the Sushi girl and plays on the playground with both new and well known friends while my husband and I enjoy a bottle of wine and some music. Sometimes we even dance. Most of the time we see people we know and an impromptu gathering of families and friends is formed.
A week ago we met friends for dinner and Delilah told me to come watch her on the monkey bars. Until then, I always had to hold her legs while she crossed from one set of posts to the other. I watched in awe, as she swung from one bar to the next for the first time, so effortlessly, confident and beaming — at Central Market. The love affair continues.
– Trish Morrison
