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GREENSBORO - The few folks who came to the Greensboro Farmers' Curb Market on Wednesday expected to find homegrown tomatoes and okra and fresh-baked breads and muffins.

They weren't expecting Sen. Barack Obama, who made an unannounced visit.

The Democratic presidential candidate from Illinois shook hands, signed autographs and posed for pictures Wednesday morning at the market. It was his only public appearance in the city. After about 25 minutes, Obama left for a town hall meeting in Martinsville, Va.

Vendors and customers said they had no warning that a man who could be elected president in November was going to visit the farmers' market until he walked in about 9:30 a.m.

Making an impression

The people who met Obama came away impressed.

"I do think he'll be our next president," said Mike Faucette, a Browns Summit farmer who said he got Obama to promise more rigorous inspection of organic food imported from China.

"I thought it was about as good an answer as he could have made," Faucette said.

Except for law enforcement and the Obama campaign, few people knew the candidate was in town.

He stayed at the O.Henry Hotel on Tuesday night after a campaign stop in Raleigh.

(The News & Record was told Tuesday to have a reporter and photographer at the O.Henry by 8 a.m. Wednesday. Campaign officials did not tell reporters about the stop until Obama's bus was nearly there.)

Wednesday morning, Obama worked out and played basketball at Grimsley High School, and was interviewed by Stuart Scott for an upcoming ESPN show. After a quick shower and change of clothes back at the hotel, Obama boarded a bus for his Greensboro appearance.

Though the candidate's local presence was not widely known, about 20 people caught wind of it and waited outside for the candidate to emerge.

When he came out of the hotel's back door about 9:20 a.m., several women squealed, "Obaaaaaaaaama!"

Obama wheeled around, waved and smiled as some in the group used cell phones and digital cameras to snap his picture.

Greensboro police blocked traffic along Green Valley Road, Benjamin Parkway and Wendover Avenue as the Obama motorcade - two buses and about 10 marked and unmarked police cars - made the seven-minute trip from the hotel to the farmers' market.

Reporters filed in first. The word was out: Obama is coming.

"He's going to be here?" asked Gladys Clapp, who was selling fresh corn. "I've got to tell my husband."

Obama strode through a set of double doors to applause and the flash of cameras. The candidate wore a dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a blue striped tie and no jacket.

Personal interaction

"One minute you're selling baby clothes, the next minute you're being swarmed by Secret Service," Jacqui van Lier of Greensboro said later.

At her stall, the first one Obama visited, the candidate took 7-month-old Anna van Lier out of her mom's arms.

"Is this baby for sale?" the candidate quipped.

"Anna," Jacqui van Lier said, "meet the next president of the United States."

Obama quizzed van Lier: Is this the grandmother? Is this the mother? Are these your goods? Anna was quiet and still, unfazed by the sudden attention, and then Obama moved on.

"My first thought," Jacqui van Lier said later, "was I didn't have my camera."

But plenty of people did, and they snapped pictures of Obama as he moved through the tight aisles. Obama signed the back of a family picture for Sandra Anderson Groat, the city's mayor pro tem. Others thrust scraps of paper at Obama. (Obama, like Republican candidate John McCain, is a lefty.)

Someone asked why he was visiting North Carolina, which has gone to the Democrat in the presidential race only once since 1964.

"I wouldn't be here if I didn't think I could win," Obama replied without looking up from the autograph he was signing.

Obama made no public statement about his vice presidential choice. He is expected to announce his running mate by Saturday, before an appearance in Springfield, Ill.

Obama paused long enough between handshakes and autographs to buy a bag of biscuits, then dropped $5 on Margariette Graves for a quarter of her homemade pound cake.

"I tried to give him the cake," Graves said later. "He wouldn't take it."

Graves did manage to give Obama a zucchini muffin. He took a bite, then replied, "I think I'm going to put this in my bag."

At 9:55 a.m., after more meeting and greeting and signing and chatting, Obama made his way back to the door he had come in. Before he left, he turned, waved and called out, "See you, everybody!"

"Bye, Barack!" the crowd yelled back. They clapped and whooped, and he boarded the bus bound for Virginia.

Quick glimpse on the road

While Obama had no plans to stop in Rockingham County on his way to Martinsville, that didn't put a stop to the wishful thinking of some Eden residents, who lined N.C. 14 just to catch a glimpse of him.

Paula Hampton skipped breakfast and called in late to work Wednesday morning. She even let her 12-year-old son, Chris, put off mowing the grass.

Hampton grabbed her son and their camera, headed to Big Lots to buy batteries and claimed a spot along the highway.

With each passing of an official-looking vehicle, Hampton's enthusiasm grew.

The reason: "The first African American man to ever get this far (in a presidential election), that makes me so excited," Hampton said.

Hampton periodically stepped into the roadway against the caution of her son.

"Oh my God!" she said upon seeing an SUV she thought might be carrying Obama. But it was only a Rockingham County sheriff's vehicle.

In between vehicles, there were prayers. "Lord, please let this camera work right," Hampton said.

Finally, the motorcade passed - a couple of dark buses and more official-looking vehicles.

And then he was gone.

Hampton left her roadside post a little disappointed. She thought Obama would at least stick his head out of the window.

Staff writer Jonnelle Davis contributed to the report.

Contact John Newsom at 373-7312 or john.newsom@news-record.com