Sunday, April 24, 2011

The Roadside Market

The LA Times features the Desert Market in Daggett, California, which sounds like a lot of village markets in the Midwest:
Beer, cigarettes, energy drinks and lottery tickets. They're the lifeblood of this tiny store that has been here for 130 years. It's managed to survive a fire, a population exodus and the loss of business after Interstate 40 was built and fewer motorists passed by the store on old Route 66.

To the people of Daggett, the store is part of their daily routine. They come to gossip, pay their utility bills or stock up on soda. To Joe, the market is a steppingstone to a better life.

The 43-year-old Jordanian immigrant at times spends 12 hours a day, seven days a week in the Desert Market, which is painted a faded turquoise, trying to earn enough money so that he doesn't have to come here anymore. He has saved enough to buy an off-road vehicle, take a day or two of vacation once in a while, pay someone else to stand behind the register now and then.

That's what he loves about Daggett, about the United States.

"If you are determined and you want to do something, you can," he says. "Trust me."

I've stopped at a lot of these places, and they are generally a treat. One nearby village has a store that has closed for months or years a couple of times, and the town just seems dead when it isn't open.

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