The New Phone Books Are Here
Does anyone other than me remember the 1979 movie, The Jerk starring Steve Martin? For some strange reason I have always remembered the scene where he jumps around, excitedly screaming, "the new phone books are here, the new phone books are here".
Well, today on our street there was an elderly fellow slowly and unexcitedly walking around delivering the new phone books. At first I wasn't going to get one as we do not have a telephone; but then I decided that it would come in handy for looking things up. I went down and asked for one and he readily handed me one. He then looked at me and in english asked for a tip! You could have knocked me over with a feather. At first I just looked at him stupidly, as I never expected to hear english from him and then of course I gave him a tip. If I had to walk around carrying and delivering those heavy books in this heat, I would want a tip also.
I had a productive trip uptown in the morning and after we ate our lunch, I spent the afternoon sewing.
This afternoon, after it cooled off a couple of degrees, Roy went down and cleaned the battery posts on the car and it started. Ciro then showed him some stuff in a container that he said is good to put on the posts to prevent this from happening. By this time Roy had everything back in one piece so he decided that he would wait and try it the next time it happens.
3 comments:
The only pay the hombre gets when he delivers your phone book is the tip. Strange, huh?? Another good use for the phone book is to use it as practice in familarizing ones self with the Spanish names for service. It taxes one's ingenuity to locate what you are looking for.
Ok, time for Roy to contribute to your blog! What is the name of the stuff Ciro showed him to put on the battery posts? I spray everything I can with WD40 and that helps somewhat. As I've said before, multiply your salt problems by 1000 and you have mine!
Yet another cultural surprise: You have to tip if you want your phone book! At first I was disgusted. Later I realized that everyone in Mexico is OK with this system, so what's my problem?
It's all about acceptance, isn't it?
Actually, the system has an advantage: When I meet the man distributing phone books in some other city, I tip him and he gives me one. Now I can look up numbers in Celaya, Queretaro, Guanajuato, and Leon.
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