Volunteer Carla Pardue is the outreach coordinator for the Hill & Lake Press. She lives in East Isles.
Most Thursday evenings this summer, I stood at the Uptown Farmers Market handing out copies of the Hill & Lake Press. I’ve distributed the paper for years, but something felt different this season.
As people reached for a copy, they didn’t just take it and move along. They stopped. They wanted to talk. They wanted to share. And over and over again, I heard the same sentiment expressed in different words: “Thank you. We really needed this.” Thank you for the market. Thank you for the newspaper. Thank you for something that feels like community
I saw neighbors run into old friends they hadn’t seen in years. I saw people linger after buying peaches or bread, just to enjoy the music or watch the dogs go by. Even on the rainy Thursdays — and we had quite a few — people still came. They showed up with umbrellas, or with frizzy hair and warm smiles, determined not to let a little weather stop the gathering. I watched this weekly ritual bring a kind of ease and familiarity back into Uptown. It felt like the neighborhood exhaling.
One evening, I handed a paper to a woman who paused for a moment before tucking it under her arm. She looked around — at the crowd, the music, the vendors chatting with customers — and she said quietly, “I didn’t think Uptown could feel like this again.” I understood exactly what she meant.
For all the headlines, for all the opinions, for all the conversations about “what Uptown used to be” or “where it’s going,” here was something simple and real: people choosing to be together.
The market drew more than 27,000 visits over its first 16-week season, supported by 44 local vendors and over 100 volunteers. But numbers don’t tell the story. The story is in the shared smiles, the neighbors who came early to set up tents, the musicians who played even when it was humid and sticky, the vendors who remembered your name and asked how your week was. The story is in the feeling — the return of something familiar, something warm, something hopeful.
Distributing the Hill & Lake Press at the market reminded me why our neighborhood newspaper matters. People held it like something they recognized, something rooted, something steady.
Many told me they read it cover to cover. Some said their parents or neighbors save it every month. Sharing the paper in a place full of life made perfect sense. The market and the newspaper are both, in their own way, about belonging.
So as we look toward the 2026 market season, I hope we carry that feeling with us. The market will continue only if we support it — through volunteering, donating, sponsoring, or simply showing up with a reusable bag and a hello for someone you bump into.
This summer reminded me that Uptown hasn’t disappeared. It’s still here, and so are we. Sometimes all we need is a place to see each other again.
