From ‘It’s a free country’ to ‘A nation of lemmings’

By Stu Tarlowe

For most of my working life, the way I’ve made my living has been dependent on crowds, on the very opposite of what’s now called “social distancing.” I was a vendor strolling through the crowds at various street fairs and festivals, hawking “Authentic Hippie Spoonrings, Custom-Fitted While-U-Wait!” And for years I peddled T-shirts (often with my own original designs) out of a van at biker swap meets, outdoor markets and across the street from fairs and festivals.

Then I became a boardwalk pitchman, serving my “apprenticeship” on the actual Boardwalk of Atlantic City, where the motto is “Ocean, Emotion and Constant Promotion.” I learned to pitch products like “The Amazing Ginsu Knife,” stopping people in their tracks, gathering a crowd, holding their attention by sheer force of personality, entertaining them for a few minutes, and then making them reach into their pockets for $10 or $20 to buy something they’d had no intention of buying, and to make them want it so much that they’d push and shove to be among the “first five” or the “first 10” or “first 12” buyers!

And then I took it on the road, pitching the Ginsu Knife and similar items that needed to be demonstrated in order to be sold (like the product now known as the “Sham-Wow,” made famous by the late Billy Mays, whom I remember when he was a “newbie” on the Boardwalk) at fairs, expos and other events all over the country.

Since the government shutdown in reaction to the coronavirus “crisis” has been in effect, I’ve been thinking a lot about those old days of being an itinerant peddler and pitchman. I’ve been thinking that, were I still making a living that way, I wouldn’t just be “idled”; I’d be ruined.

It seems that anyone who made a living in similar circumstances would be ruined, as would the promoters of events involving gatherings of people, and everybody connected to such events. And I don’t think such events are coming back, if and when the alleged health crisis has passed. When sporting events are canceled, the teams can afford it, the players can afford it, but the guy who sold hot dogs from a cart outside the stadium is financially destroyed.

How many businesses started out as a guy peddling stuff on a street corner, or selling out of his car trunk, or taking a table or a booth at a show of some kind, and either making a living that way or building it, over time, into a business with a permanent location and multiple employees?

full story at https://www.wnd.com/2020/04/free-country-nation-lemmings/