Annual Bazaar, Soup Kitchen
and Granny’s Attic Saturday
Published:  October 07, 2015

A decades’ long community favorite, the annual First United Methodist Church Bazaar, Soup Kitchen and Granny’s Attic is Saturday offering hours of fun shopping, delicious eating and treasure hunting.

The October 10 Bazaar will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., with the Soup Kitchen open for business from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

The luncheon includes a generous portion of homemade soup, roll, pie and beverage, all for only $8. Pie and a beverage are also available for only $4.50. 

The Bazaar offers Halloween, Fall and Christmas decorations (plenty of handmade darling ornaments in the Holiday Store!) as well as needlecraft, tea towels, aprons, jams and fresh produce among other goodies ready to take home at very reasonable prices. 

Granny’s Attic is the perfect place to visit for Trash to Treasures, always filled with fun and practical items at bargain basement prices.

Staged by the Women of First United Methodist Church (WFUMC) no one is quite sure how long it has been held at the church, 133 N. Mill St.

“I have looked high and low for some documentation about the history of the bazaar at our church and at this point none is to be found,” said Virginia Gunderson who noted “Most of the ladies that worked so hard at putting it on were ‘Doers’ not ‘Documenters’. ”

Gunderson does know the bazaar grew out of a regular holiday time luncheon, an event that was gradually expanded to include the handmade decorations and items, baked goods and produce.

“My mother called me in the late 1960s,” when Gunderson, a noted artist, was living in Washington State where she had a ceramic shop, “and asked me to send some of my small plates and items to put on the sales table that I had made.  

“So far that’s the earliest any of the ladies working on the project can remember too, and since I’m one of the very oldest in the congregation,” Gunderson laughed, “I suppose no one will challenge my observation.”

Peggy Grainger was the first Chairwoman of the Bazaar, but Gunderson said after she returned to Santa Paula and started working to prepare the famed soup, “preparing the vegetables and the meat,” usually seven roaster ovens full, “was under the supervision of Betty Taylor Spalding, and later Glenda Jackson. 

“Molly Burgett is now in charge and does a fine job of keeping us all in line...”

People flock to the Bazaar, Soup Kitchen and Granny’s Attic each year and the allure, said Gunderson, is “We have many crafts, Granny’s Attic for things you just can’t live without, linens, produce, baked goods, jams, jellies and of course our Soup Kitchen!”




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