Paul Sassone

He’s doing his bit to make America great again.

Thirsty?

In the dark?

Need a patriotic pick-me-up?

He can help with any or all of those.

Just stop by his store.

Well, it’s not a store exactly. It’s outside a real, walls-and-ceiling store near the door by the parking lot. No overhead and no employees.

Very American. The President would approve, I’m sure.

Spread out on the flat top of a trash container are his wares.

There are 16-ounce bottles of Coke, a bargain since they are free of county tax.

He has little lanterns about six inches high. And what is neat about them is that while they emit light they don’t require batteries.

On her way into the store next to his store, a lady stops, intrigued by the battery-less lanterns.

He engages her in conversation on the excellence of the lanterns. It’s the art of the deal in action.

She buys three lanterns.

“I knew these would go like hotcakes!” the entrepreneur exclaims, proud of his business acumen.

The bottles of Coke aren’t so hotcakey. His Cokes aren’t as cold as the Cokes in the actual, four-walled store, which has refrigeration. He is at a competitive disadvantage. All he has is an unrefrigerated

basket on top of a trash container.

Draped over that basket is his big-ticket item — flags.

American flags. These Old Glorys are made of plastic about two feet by four feet. And they are not selling well.

He told me he hadn’t sold a flag all that afternoon.

But he refused to be down-hearted. The lanterns, he reminded me, were going like hotcakes. And that’s what happens when you are a businessman. Some days are better than others.

Flags may not sell today.

But, tomorrow?

Who knows?

Meanwhile, he will conduct business, doing what he can to make this corner of the parking lot great again.

–Living the American dream?–