IUSB T2T Trade Fair

Once upon a time at beautiful Indiana University South Bend there was a Trade Fair. This event was held by and for the Transition 2 Teaching Cohort of which I am a part. Members of our little group each brought items to trade with the rest of the class as a demonstration activity relating to “trade”. At first I had hoped to have some handmade lanyards produced by my youngest son, but when he heard that there would be no pay, he became dispositional and refused to help.

My initial plan in flames, I found several antique shirts from my jaded days in the nuclear power industry. One was a souvenir from the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in Southern California from 1982. It has some nice artwork of the plant on the back. The other shirt is a relic from shortly after the Three Mile Island incident in Pennsylvania. When the world decided that nuclear power was a baaad thing, we had some “NO NUKES” shirts made, with a somewhat different message wrapped around the comment. I was not sure if anyone would even want them, but I took a chance.

Lo and behold the Lovely Nia decided that her engineer fiancé might be amused by my No Nukes shirt, and was willing to negotiate a trade involving a luscious red velvet cupcake for the shirt, yum!.

Later, I was able to trade the other shirt, with the artwork, for several bags of homemade cookies by the Ever Wonderful Gladys, double yum!

The fair taught us about interdependence, general trade, supply and demand and bartering. It was a good class and a fun experience that we can use in future with our own classes.