Mobile Shopping on Three Continents

Since we’ve been in Turkey, let’s begin there. Asian Turkey. The main thing the kids are selling along very narrow winding mountainous roads is fruit. FRUIT! It’s amazing the first time you bite into a peach, an apple, tangerine, orange, the nine types of melons, and they all taste exactly like you can remember them when you were a kid. Oh. Sorry. It was the 1930's when I was a kid. Anyway, the fruits are insanely addictive!

One fine day when as we topped a long climb and got this wonderful view of the Black Sea, a father and son stood under a tree, both waving branches at us. I was already to pass ‘em up when Marilyn screams, ‘ Those are branches filled with Black Heart Cherries, Bear!’ I slam the breaks and back. Sure enough . ..Cherries. Big, fat black as coal cherries! We buy baskets instead of branches. Marilyn doesn’t like cherry preserves, cherry pies, cherry cobblers of cherry upside down cake. But she’s a glutton for fresh ones. So I drive and she slides them in my mouth in small handfuls and after I suck and shew, I spit the seeds out the window like I’m a tail gunner again.

Oh, one last thing . . . Peaches! Be sure you got a hanky or a towel for the juice spurting out. And by the way, the roman Empire got their first cherry trees from Turkey.

‘Mexican roads are just as narrow, windy and mountainous, and there’s kids out on them. However, in most regions they’re selling ancient artifacts. Mayan deities, Aztec gods and goddesses, Olmec tiled inscriptions. It’s according to what part of the country you’re in. Now here’s the jolt. There’s no way you can date a clay artifact! If the kids find a mold, they fire up the clay, bury the statue for a couple of weeks and hawk it on the road. But also, if you take the time and walk the edges of the corn fields, you find real artifacts by the handfuls. The farmers say they’re good luck for the crops. So why can’t the kids do the same thing? They do. One of my friend’s sons found a unbroken statue about 18 inches high. It was real. The Aztec period. Worth about $20,000 in 1970! Appraised by the Mexican Govt.. Oh yeah, they said he couldn’t leave Mexico with it! Sure. Oh. In Mexico, the kids like to throw rocks at you if you don’t stop. And up in the Sonora Desert they sell caged birds. I got a short story coming on line about that.

Morocco’s kids are selling asparagus! Fresh and green! Long and thick and as tender as a ripe plum oh I forgot! Plums in Turkey will tear your heart out! The Moroccan kids also hawk flowers, potatoes, and oranges in season. Their roads are slightly better because their former colonial masters, the French, like to speed. So you’re going a little faster, and not so good a target as in Mexico. And there’s one really bad thing about almost any African country. German tourists like to throw candy out the windows and see if they can hit the kids. So there’s this
pathetic scene with five or so kids in rags, begging you to throw candy at them. So it goes.

In South African nations, there’s loads of roadside markets. Some have a mile of stalls and they’re selling wood carvings, ethnic clothing, and cooked food. Stay clear of the last, even though it has this addictive aroma seeping into your noses.

South America’s roads are really in good shape, so you don’t see kids on the roads. But in the city you have to slow down. They run out at every red light and test your luggage racks and if they’re really locked. And if not, out comes a suitcase or two as you wait at a light or crawl along with the traffic. Keep your important stuff on you at all times in Peru. Kids along the roads in the Andean parts of S.A. are just waking, toting heavy bags or bundles. Barefoot, wrapped in old worn out blankets and chewing coca leaves which numb them and ward off the cold and pain. It ain’t nice, but as the CIA use to say back in the 60's and 70's, ‘ We have to be careful not to disrupt the national economies.’ Try the Indian markets. Once you get into Chile and Argentina, ‘ We do not have indigenous cultures any longer.