Missing the Common Ground Fair

Hillary, one of our Customer Care Specialists, has been working the HobaCare booth at the Common Ground Fair for many years. Being the one in the office with the most experience, we had her write up a post about why we will miss being at the fair this year.

One of the biggest reasons the Common Ground Fair  in Unity, Maine holds such a special place in my heart is because the very first year our company set up our booth I ended up meeting my future husband. He recognized our company due to having used HobaCare Jojoba on the tools he helped create while working at Lie-Nielsen Toolworks in Warren, Maine. As we became friends and later partners (him helping at our booth each year as an enthusiastic HobaCare user), I worked my seventh fair finally married to this catch!

There’s so much more to Common Ground than romance, although the fair as a whole is easy for me to heartily romanticize. I bet most people can agree there is a certain special “vibe” to this event. The combination of the time of year, late September being such a golden time of Maines seasons, the out of ordinary planning to camp for three days amongst friendly strangers, the scent of pine trees, coffee and chai on your morning walk through woods or fields to start the day and the sense that people from truly all walks of life are sincerely welcomed for three days of community spirit, education and finding that perfect product to take home.

There is so much familiarity, tradition, and camaraderie at Common Ground. Not only are all the Common Ground Fair vendors unique, fascinating people from all over the state, with wonderful products – they inevitably behave encouragingly much more so than competitors, vying for sales. Most of us are camping, we all have to wait in line for the porta-potty situation, we all endure the foul weather if it strikes, we all brave the absolutely thick sea of attendees to try to find lunch and scurry back to our booths, we all work long days standing and speaking for 99% of the time that we all feel sore and hoarse by the time we roll into our tents, cars or campers – yet, there is always a spirit of cheer, appreciation and good humor amongst one another that is much, much larger than any weariness. We are all truly glad to be there.

Working at The Fair seems to be a naturally bonding experience. I’ve made some of my best memories with coworkers turned forever friends at this event.

Then there are the customers! Talk about cheer. It never fails to feel heartwarming to be so well received by returning customers, who shower us in enthusiasm that they’ve found us once again. We are so grateful to hear so many stories about how glad they are they tried HobaCare Jojoba the year before, what it’s done for their skin, how they plan to make their own home recipes with it and even introducing us to their new babies who are benefitting from their parents impeccable skincare product choices. We look forward to each and every one of those connecting moments.

There have been several times we’ve had these very same repeat customers do our job for us, as they recognize a new-to-jojoba attendee walk past trying to figure out what it is we sell. They’ll reach right out and tell them to try a sample, with a description of why they love using jojoba. It doesn’t get much better than that.

We will fondly miss the whole Common Ground Fair experience this 2020 year – our booth neighbors, the smells of Sweet Annie, the amazing livestock sightings, the sounds of the parade going by, and those fried shitake mushroom treats among other delicious meals. We greatly look forward to being able to attend again when it is possible!