Posts
When I was young, traveling salesmen crisscrossed the country, just as they do in the opening scene of The Music Man. The most memorable of these was the Fuller Brush man, who traveled from town to town selling brushes. My mother always invited him in, and I find it hard to believe that anyone ever sent him away. He would lug his heavy salesman's suitcase into the middle of the living room and open it to display his treasures. In that era, the Fuller Brush man was seen as performing a welcome service. Not only did he sell scores of purpose-built brushes, but he also provided the housewife with a distraction from her daily duties.
His specialized brushes were irresistible. Yes, he offered hairbrushes of all kinds (boar's bristles, artificial bristles, round, flat-backed, tortoise shell, new-fangled plastic). But beyond the hair brushes were vegetable brushes, fingernail brushes, bathtub brushes, clothes brushes, floor-scrubbing brushes, and skinny bottle brushes.
What I remember, however, are not the brushes but my excitement (and my mother's as well) at the variety of his cornucopia of goods, all of them displayed right there in our living room. Each brush nestled in a special compartment of his cunningly designed suitcase. The order and symmetry of the layout were irresistible--to my mother as well as to me, apparently, for she inevitably ordered many more brushes than we needed.
You didn't buy directly from the Fuller Brush man. You placed an order. So you had two occasions of joy: the first was when you saw the treasures of the suitcase and you made your choices. After you placed your order and paid the man, you might experience buyer's remorse. But regrets were forgotten when the mailman delivered your package and you were able to re-live your initial excitement as you opened the package and took possession of all those new brushes.
During my one semester of night-school Russian years ago, I learned this apt proverb: "novaya skatyert; radost zhenye." New tablecloth; happiness to the wife. The same is true of brushes.
http://www.scenesfromthejourney.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment