Future Deal Broker...Got Him a Tiger Face!

Today I had the cutest little Hispanic 8 year old (or so) boy that had seen a tiger I'd painted earlier in the day and REALLY wanted it. He asked how much and I told him $8.00. He hemmed and hawed and said he'd come back. He comes back and says "Can you have a sale like my daddy does? Can you do it for $2.00?" I told him I could do a tiger nose for $3.00 but he shook his head...again, he comes back and says "How about you have a sale like my daddy."

I asked him at this point, "What does your daddy sell?" and he said a word I didn't recognize and I said "Is if food, because we're really hungry" and he said "yes" and he didn't quite get what I was offering so I said "We will trade you a tiger face for dinner." He lit up like a Christmas tree!

He ran back to the booth and said came back and said "You want mild or hot" I told him mild and then he came back again "Beef or Chicken" and I said beef and then he comes back again (luckily it wasn't far) and says "Okay, he's making your sandwich" and looks at me. I said "Okay, go get our sandwich and I'll paint you.

He comes with this little sack with the most delicious fair food I've ever had. It was like a panini sandwich with Latin ingredients like guacamole and cilantro and shredded beef and cheese. Really good. I painted him a great tiger face...his father was thrilled at the trade, I could see his reaction from my booth and he came by and thanked me.

So...while I'm painting him his little girl cousin is DANCING and TALKING around us constantly "I want a butterfly with polka dots" "I want a zebra" "You know the movie Tangled? I want Tangled" and we're trying to respond and the boy is moving his head constantly, etc. I had to make her sit in the chairs finally because the noise was constant. Well, after he's done she tries to sit in my chair. I said "What are you going to trade?" and she looks at me. "I got a sandwich for a tiger face, what are you going to get for us?" The boy said "you need to trade her something." I told her that we were very thirsty, could she bring us a drink.

So, she and tiger face run back over to the booth and got us two drinks in foam cups...and we nearly died when the kids took little sips on the way back because they were too full and they were dripping! It was hilarious! I had tiger lips on my drink!

Well, she got a very beautiful butterfly because we couldn't figure out how to paint "Tangled with polka dots and a rainbow on top" and she was very happy.

You've got to admire the salesmanship and perseverance.

D.

what a cute story!

Haha, that's so adorable. Great job on the faces too, I can see why they were so determined to get painted!

That food sounds really good, now I'm hungry (at 2am)...thanks, Denise, thanks a lot...lol

Tamara, don't you hate it when they have those DANG Whopper commercials on at 11:00 pm...now what am I supposed to do with that Burger King...what am I supposed to do!

D.

Thats awesome.. really put a smile on my face.

Love this story. Sooo cute. And I love the smile on those happy children. This is why I enjoy FP.

Btw Panini? Guacamole? Cheese? Mmmmmmmm. Yep, I'm visiting my fridge.

that's a beautiful story - thank you for sharing!

super cute

Love that story!

We did the Festival Latino a couple of weeks ago, and that was the best smelling festival ever! We certainly purchased our share...and it seemed that nearly all the food booths were family run, and most of the children got painted. We had very nice Dominican Neighbors who made WONDERFUL stuff, and I fixed their daughter's kitty over and over, because she was just so darned cute!

I picked up a birthday party from that event, and did it last weekend. I felt like I was right back at Festival Latino, nice people, all bilingual, lots of Spanish converstations peppered with English and very well behaved nice kids, and more wonderful food! I never accept food at parties, but boy, was I tempted when they offered! They were very nice. Picked up another party at that party, so the Festival goes on!

It was a "feel good" couple of weeks, even more than usual.

Thanks for that story! It really gave me a warm fuzzy!

That was so heartwarming! It is always nice to hear stories like these!!

That's awesome... I need to find people to barter with.

That is such a cute story

I feel the same way about food commercials in the middle of the night. I remember when I was pregnant, I would constantly tell my husband it should be illegal to show things on TV you can't have right now!!!!

aw! awesome!! They look great and so happy! you got dinner and man it sounds GOOD!

lol cravings and pregnant, ah man. commercials can be evil. I like to watch'em though. we dont get cable at all so I never know what people are talking about.

Great Story..it's all about the barter system! Keep up the good work

what a great story! and lol at the rant at burger king hehe.