Last weekend was pretty gloomy in Las Cruces. We got more rain in a three day period than I have ever experienced in our 40 plus years of living here.
We decided to get pizza for the evening and as I was driving down a street right at dusk, I passed a brightly colored display on the side of the street in front of an abandoned franchise shoe store.
When I pulled up next to the display to investigate, a man quickly came out of his nice SUV pulling a trailer and was of course excited that I might buy what he had for sale.
The items he displayed were colorful plastic orbs of various shapes which he had made, including some that looked like hot air balloons, and all were electrified. Had it been 20 years ago, I might have considered buying one of these things, just to reward him for his persistence. But my wife and I have so much stuff collected over the years that I’m currently in the “let’s get rid of this” mode.
I spoke with the vendor briefly. He said he was from Las Vegas, NV, and had gone through Phoenix for a stop, then was heading to El Paso when he decided to give Las Cruces a try. Had he been here a week earlier, I think he could have sold several hot air balloon shaped electric orbs because of the local balloon rally that weekend. But sadly, he picked probably the worst weekend for an outdoor vendor to be selling things.
I asked him how successful he had been.
“Yeah, I sold a few,” he said, probably wildly overstating his success.
He said his ultimate goal was to end up in San Antonio, TX, where I suspect that if he found the right spot, he might actually do pretty well.
I concluded the conversation saying I might stop by tomorrow and take another look. But of course, I didn’t and I feel bad about that.
You have to admire street vendors — whatever they’re selling. I suspect they have an always optimistic outlook on how well their sales will go. And I believe part of what they enjoy is just meeting new people and enjoying new places.
And of all the street vendors I’ve encountered over the years, I’ll always remember the one roadside stand that I saw between Farmington and Shiprock. Its handwritten sign promised to sell you “Avon products and live goats.”
I didn’t stop to learn more about the sales offerings, and I’ve always regretted that. Who knows, I might have come home with a goat with fancy lipstick on its face.
aero-cordero.com 