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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 28, 2010 17:22:18 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2010 17:48:52 GMT
Even in the streets of Paris -- but this was 25 years ago -- there was a knife sharpener who came around my office area near the Champs Elysées. He had a whole cart instead of just a bicycle and a special bell that he would ring and people would go down with their knives. He also did scissors of course, and I wouldn't be surprised it he also sold some items. In such a rich area, it was the cook or the maid who would come, but they clearly knew that they were getting quality service. He would come tinkling down the street about once a month.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2010 18:27:17 GMT
This is so cool! I think I might try my hand at doing this and ride my bike through the NOLA neighborhoods!! I would love!! (don't know that I would last at it,but neat idea). Great pics!!
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 28, 2010 18:39:11 GMT
Perhaps they all retired or died. It's always difficult to pinpoint when professions like that cease. It seems as though one moment they're commonplace, then they are gone forever.
I am trying to think if I've ever seen a young knife sharpener around here. One thing I've noticed about them -- they all seem to have something wrong with one of their eyes. Perhaps this was a trade young men with eye problems were channeled into? They're obviously not blind, since they're riding bicycles.
Knife grinders are frequently to be found in markets. The flute noise announcing the knife man's presence can be heard beginning at :10 on this video taken in the Zaachila market:
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Post by bjd on Apr 28, 2010 19:08:25 GMT
A few years ago a guy came around where I live offering to sharpen knives and scissors. I think he had a small truck. Haven't seen one around lately. When I was a kid in Toronto, there were guys with little stands and a bell like the kind we had a school to call kids in from recess. They would walk around the neighbourhoods, ringing the bell and calling something out. And I saw this guy in Buenos Aires in 2006, in the city centre, on one of the main shopping streets.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 28, 2010 20:32:21 GMT
All itinerant tradespeople here have different sounds to announce their specialties. The same for services. The gas trucks have jingling chains dragging behind, plus each brand has a loudspeaker jingle and the seem to hire drivers who really like blowing the horn. The garbage truck has a bell. Ice cream vendors use a Harpo Marx horn, as do the boiled corn vendors. There is a type of large home-made wafer sold by men carrying a big can. They announce themselves by striking a triangle. The fried banana guys release steam on their carts, which makes a calliope-like whistle. Atole and tamale ladies just call out their wares, as do the various vendors who pass selling concrete washboards or furniture.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 29, 2010 18:36:59 GMT
One thing I've noticed about them -- they all seem to have something wrong with one of their eyes. Quoting myself here to update this comment. I mentioned this thing about the knife sharpeners and eye problems to a friend yesterday. His immediate answer -- "None of them wear eye protection." He went on to say that with sparks and metal splinters flying upward, accidents are bound to happen.
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Post by spindrift on May 1, 2010 7:19:50 GMT
All such vendors have long since disappered from the streets in England. I wish it were not so. There is no-one to interact with on a casual basis. That's another reason why I love to travel far and wide trying to put the clock back. When I trekked in Upper Mustang I longed to wash my clothes with other women in streams running through villages . My fellow trekkers discouraged me but I wish I had...
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Post by bixaorellana on May 1, 2010 18:17:21 GMT
I once told the young woman from whom I bought tamales that there were no such door-to-door food vendors in the US. Even though she's university educated and very involved politically, she was flummoxed by this information.
Mexicans often ask me why I live here, since it's so much "better" in the US. I find that citing the life in the streets is the closest I can explain convincingly why I prefer life here.
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Post by hwinpp on May 7, 2010 5:14:33 GMT
LOL!
We have a knife sharpener too. They're usually old guys from the provinces, they come in twos for safety. Stay 2 or 3 weeks in town then return.
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