Last week at our stall at the market- I know,I know ,I'm supposed to have written up about it,but haven't on account of.....being busy with said stall?...- well, as I was saying,at the market, there was this guy, tall, about fifty-ish, white,looked slightly ragged and unkempt,who walked up to my friend at the counter and asked for ,"five dollars worth of food"-he did not ask to see the menu, did not pick anything, just asked for five dollars worth of food.She turned around to us and mentioned it,when he broke in going,"I need to check if I have the money".Wow!!We were nonplussed and immediately put a hold on slipping onion pakoras into the fryer...
He,in the meanwhile,walked off to the sidewalk near our stall,which was close to where we have our fryer,and therefore all of us congregate during pour intensive frying sprees, as well as when we take a break , and proceeded to sprawl,I am not exaggerating, sprawl on the sidewalk,open out a couple of small backpacks he had and sort through a bunch of notebooks, loose leaf papers,and all kinds of paraphernalia looking for, we assumed, money.
This went on for a good fifteen minutes,and I was keeping an eye on the guy because -well, you never know.....
He repacked his things,got up,walked to where were standing at the fryer and started telling us about how he had lost weight and gone from a size 34 to a size 30 or something,and therefore had to use rope to keep his pants up and it was troublesome, and by that point we had come to the conclusion that he was not going to buy anything from us and that he had some kind of mental issue.....
We always have people sample our food,so we had a couple of pakoras lying around and so we asked him to sample it...The look of pleasure in his face was a sight to behold,he was profuse in his compliments about the food and then remembered that he was wearing two pants and maybe his money was in the second one,which it was.
So we send him off with five dollars worth of food and while the food was being made,we had to listen to him talk about his Mom and that she was having a party for her birthday and could we cater the party....and it went on and on confirming our earlier suspicions...
He wandered off ,food in hand and plonked himself onto a folding chair that one of the stall owners had put up for his personal use and proceeded to demolish the food. We were watching him and wondering ...He seemed unaware of the fact that he was in somebody else's chair and in general he gave us the feeling that we were right about our earlier assumption.
Last week we sold out at the market....by 12.15 we were going crazy,orders backed up,but people patiently waiting,and then it was over!! We had to tell people we had nothing left-the most joyous words to use at a stall in the farmers market!! So we were standing there savoring our little success when he ambled back to us with four peaches in a plastic bag and said,"Here ladies, one for each of you!I loved the fact that you were very patient with me,and let me work through my tension and then presented me with the tastiest food possible!"
That we were dumbfounded would be understating things!We were absolutely floored !I personally was awash in guilt and shame.That we had jumped to conclusions about someone and had relegated them to the "not all there" group and were keeping an eye out just in case-that got me thinking, just in case what?
That they are armed and dangerous?That they will harm us?The media and popular culture will have us believe that people with mental illnesses are violent and prone to commit mass shootings....but statistics speaks otherwise.....such people are more likely to be victims that perpetrators.....
without delving into that highly politicized issue,I would like to apologise to the people I have stereotyped based on exterior looks and behaviors -I am sorry.And come over to our stall anytime!!We have pakoras!!
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