The "Richard and the Gold Teeth" Story

It was an ordinary day. I had just bought a necklace from Richard. We are on the island of Barbados in the southern Caribbean. Beautiful island, but all islands we visit on vacation are beautiful. We found a deal in the newspaper from Liberty Travel. Seven days in Barbados for $595 and that included the airfare!! Can't pass that up so I called Karen, our travel agent at Liberty, and asked if the advertisement was for real. "Yes it is, but the place that is offered for $595 isn't what you usually like," she told me. "I can get you a nicer place, but the cost is slightly higher." Yeah, right! Well, she came through as usual for us. Found the Divi Resort in Barbados for $695 for the week. And we would be on the "Best of Barbados" promotion which gives you a coupon book for hundreds of dollar savings. Yeah, right! In the end, it really did save us quite a bit of money, but we would have had to do everything in the book to get the hundreds of dollars savings. We even decided to stay for two weeks for those savings. The Divi is located in an area referred to as the St. Lawrence Gap. Plenty of restaurants, stores, vendors, bars and churches. Really wouldn't have to leave the area except we like to explore. As we leave the resort we have to cross a narrow road made of tiles to reach the beach. A few vendors line this area and try to hawk their trinkets. Everyday this fellow with the bright red umbrella would give us a big smile and tell us when it was safe to cross the road. Not once did he tell us he was the vendor of the stand by our resort. Everyday he had the smile and we soon got to know him. Richard was his name and he was a native islander. Also sold jewelry as the sign on the tree proclaimed. Richard had two teeth with gold appliques on them. One had gold around the edges, but the other had a big "R" on it. Pretty neat. Towards the end of vacation I told Carol I'm going to buy something from Richard since he had been so nice to us for two weeks. "Why don't you buy one of those hats he has for sale," she told me. "Naw, I have too many hats already. I'm going to buy a necklace!!" After she stopped laughing, she helped me pick out a really nice necklace, with Richard helping all the way. And, naturally he had a big smile on his face. At first I thought I should have a big gold chain like Richard wore, but Carol convinced me to start with something more conservative. OK, so I bought a conservative necklace. And, I still wear it. Now all I need is a gold tooth with the letter "L" on it. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - Photos from the top are: Street in St. Lawrence Gap we crossed to get to the beach, Richard and LDub with the conservative necklace and Richard displaying his gold teeth. Pretty neat, aren't they?