Okay, so I finished school less thank a week ago and I'm still waiting to go abroad, I have a lot of time on my hands. As I was sitting here, wasting time, I began to reminisce about the crazy adventures I've had throughout my life. Here's one I tell to those who are near and dear to me, I guess its time I put it down on paper.
It all started during my sophomore summer vacation. I had just finished my second year of high school and my dad had already had me working in the grape fields for a few months. One afternoon, as we were driving home on a dusty road near the fields where we worked, my dad got an idea. On the side of that dusty road my dad noticed there was a group of men selling watermelons. Being the entrepreneur that he is, he stopped and asked for the price of the watermelons. The price escapes me right now, but it must have been good since he promised the men he would buy a ton the next week. I'm sure I thought my dad was full of hot air when he promised the guys he would buy the watermelons, I guess I was wrong.
At the time, my family had some uncles working in construction in Los Angeles; they were nothing more than your average migrant day laborers. For some reason my dad got the great idea of asking them what they thought about selling fresh produce in LA. As expected, they told my dad what he wanted to hear, they mentioned a shop owner would probably buy his produce if it was at a reasonable price. To make the long story short, the shop owner agreed to buy the watermelons my dad brought.
The next week, my dad and I took the Saturday off from working in the grape fields and headed with a ton of watermelons to LA. It was a sight to see. Our pick up truck could barely make it up the grape-vine. Finally, after a long drive and several attempts at finding our way around LA we found the store. As my dad went in to negotiate, an old lady stopped and asked if I was selling watermelons. I kindly told the lady that we were selling them to the store and that I couldn't sell them to her. I would soon regret not selling her that damn watermelon. The shop owner came out and started looking at the watermelons. He wasn't pleased. My dad learned an important concept that day, quality control. The watermelons were far too small for his store. Soon after that, my dad and I were stuck in LA with a ton of watermelons and almost no money in our pockets. The worst thing was that, the LA we were stuck in was not what you see on TV. This LA was dirty and dingy, full of homeless people and kids who looked like gang bangers. I didn't like it.
As my dad tried to figure out what to do with all those damn watermelons he parked on a street corner and told me to sell as many as I could while he came back. I complied. I stood out on the corner of who knows where and started to do my best to sell the damn watermelons. Nobody wanted to buy them. I probably sold 3 damn watermelons. You should have seen me, I was embarrassed. I saw nice cars driving by with kids no older than me; they seemed so happy and care free. I realized then how it feels to be at the very bottom of the food chain. Most importantly, I realized how hard it was to get ahead in life. Nothing is given out for free.
As we were leavening feeling as things couldn't get any worse, we hear a siren and police lights. I could have swore we were going to jail for selling produce on the street corner. I was happy to find out that the LAPD likes watermelons; the cops pulled us over just to buy them. Trying not get a ticket, we practically gave them away. After that scare, my dad decides to call it quits. Or so I thought. We went home through a lonely desert highway and ended up in a place shittier than Bakersfield, hard to believe. It was getting very late, but we finally managed to find a store manager to buy all the watermelons for about 50 dollars. It seemed like those were the best news I had ever heard.
After that long day, we had only made about $55 dollars, that's not taking into account the cost of gas, food, and the money we lost from missing work. I didn't even care about the cost, I was just happy to know the day was over and that I would be able to get home. I was through with being a watermelon salesman.
