August 27, 2006

           Total sales were under $10 but I was in all day and the shop was open. It would have been more except for the Haitians who offer $20 for things worth $200. What an economy they must have over there. Every Haitian I know comes into the shops to buy old clothes, cell phones and tape decks to ship back there. I have no idea what they do with outdated cell phones, but somebody over there must have the skill to work them.

           It was so quiet, I was able to list all the big ticket items on the local free web page. Take that to mean a glass top table, a wheelchair, a chest of drawers, a sofa set and a 1960s Schwinn Typhoon. I remember the era, not the bicycle. Other people knew one brand from another, I only knew that when I looked in the catalog I had to pick the cheapest one to have any chance of getting it.
           Research shows that the Typhoon was the el cheapo bottom of the line. Meaning it lacked a carrier, streamers and chrome fenders. Wait, this is coming back to me now. Just kidding. It turned out that eventually the Typhoon became their best selling bike, apparently make in Chicago. Most collectors and restorers started on a Typhoon. Okay.

           I had one jerk phone up to talk about the bike but finally had to cut him off because he wouldn’t buy it. For $75. Does anyone besides me notice the front fender is on backward? Yeah, yeah, you don’t even know which way I’m going. It was a 17 mile round trip to the shop and back, via Dania Beach, Hollywood Beach and Hallandale Beach. They have still not finished fixing up that Broadwalk. This is a two mile stretch they are paving and putting in a fancy little wall. How that is going to inject new life into an area that charges $4 for a drink is beyond me.
           So I took off my shirt and walked on the beach with the bicycle. It was slow going in the late afternoon sun. Talk about dead. I snapped this photo of stripes, shadows from the condos that line the boulevard and completely destroyed any semblance of small town about this area. Well, except for the people’s minds. Those remain small town through anything. Hell, that I know – I grew up in a town where progress was doing it fifty years after the nearest big city.

           For a treat, here is another Argus picture, another classic. That means if I ever become a rock star, I can place these photos on the inside cover of my third album, and all kinds of people will think it is so meaningful. That is one of my pet peeves, the way that authors and artists assume that once they become famous, that you become intensely interested in their history and upbringing. Strange lot. I call the picture “Quite River”. It is on the south side of Dania Beach Boulevard, the one with such bad shoulders that I’ll never ride there again. Actually, most of the local sidewalks are in such bad shape that a dangerous ride on the road is preferable at times.