Give Her The Tomato!

That is what I wanted to say but didn’t. It wasn’t my business. I didn’t hear the entire conversation between the woman at the farmer’s market and the vendor. I saw the vendor taking some paper that looked like coupons in exchange for produce. The buyer had a large beautiful tomato in her hand that she wanted to buy. The vendor said “one dollar” that was followed by an awkward silence. The two were staring at each other.

I didn’t know what the story was, but it seemed ridiculous. It was only a tomato. So I got a dollar out of my wallet and handed it to the vendor. The vendor gives me a dirty look. Did I spoil something?

So after I handed the vendor the dollar, I picked up some mint and started a conversation with two women who walked up to the vendor’s table. I looked at the mint and realized that it was a lot of mint, more than I could use (dehydrating it to put in espresso coffee). I pulled out some of the mint from the bunch that I was about to buy and handed it to one woman who just wanted a little bit. She didn’t ask for it. She said that she liked mint, but didn’t use enough to purchased a bundle of it. She thanked me and handed something that she was purchasing to the woman standing next to her. We all laughed about this exchange.

The woman woman standing on the other side of me at the vendor’s table thanked me for helping her with her tomato purchase. I noticed that she had a baby with her and learned that her six week old baby daughter is named Egypt. We talked about how the baby got her name.

So what started with a surly farmer’s market vendor blossomed to sharing, smiles and good conversation. All this came about because something told me to stop at the vendor’s booth when i wasn’t planning to do so.

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