Getting a new broom

In an East Los Angeles neighborhood, the streets are busy on a weekend afternoon. Families go shopping. Kids play in front yards and on the sidewalk. Couples walk hand-in-hand. Teenagers skateboard down the hilly streets, or cluster in alleys smoking pot. People work on their cars, or wash them.

A lot of vendors do business on the neighborhood streets. On a busy corner by a bus-stop, you might see a fruit vendor. On a side street or in a vacant parking lot, a taco truck.

On a beautiful autumn afternoon, we encountered this vendor, selling cleaning supplies from the back of a truck. Big bottles of cleaning fluids were stacked up on carts and dollies, and bins held different kinds of mops and brooms for sale. Along the slatted fence bordering an auto-repair business, brooms with plastic bristles in an array of bright colors were lined up.

What do you think? Isn't it time for a new broom? Isn't TODAY the day to go out and get one? I'm picking a blue one.