The Hawker

Friday night (5/9, Manassas, VA)

I was attending a sports memorabilia show where a man was selling autographs of famous athletes. As a bonus, he [the seller, not the athlete] would personalize the photos for the person willing to cough up the most dough. He was a bit of a con artist, but I saw that he was selling an autographed photo of Giants great Willie Mays, so I was interested. I hovered around a table where the hawker was sitting, and was soon joined by a rival who also wanted the photo; he looked a little like Michael Jordan, and he sat across from me. I could tell that the new arrival knew the man who was holding the photos, and had bought items from him in the past. The three of us eyed each other warily. To heighten the tension, the seller took out his pen and wrote "To" on the top of the picture. At that moment, Willie Mays himself strolled into the scene and stood behind us, frowning at the goings-on.

*****

Always liked that Wille Mays.