The "Faces Of Strangers: #48" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading my Kindle on the beach when all of a sudden a horn blows.  And then it sounds again.  Short time later I hear someone calling out, “Get your shell phone here!  Free WiFi!  Free Internet!  Then I see him.  Holding up a large conch shell with a star fish aerial sticking out from the top of it.  Pretty neat!  I’ll tell you ... he certainly got my attention.  

Devano aka "Skinny"

Then he points at a young girl who is sitting on the beach looking at him and says, “Need a new shell phone?  Comes in pink and tan.”  Guy has most everyone on the beach listening to him and laughing.  Told my wife, “That’s guy’s a fantastic salesman, so he is.”  Wasn’t long before our traveling friends Jere and Just Sue called him over and bought one of his so called shell phones.  Pretty neat so it is.  The conch shell has one end cut off and if you blow into that end just perfect, it sounds like a horn.  That evening the four of us happened to be watching the Penn State vs. Michigan football game in our hotel room directly behind the beach.  At halftime our friends left to head back to their room for the second half.  Wasn’t long before we heard Just Sue blowing her new shell phone.  Loud as can be and it echoed across the entire resort.  The next day on the beach I saw the fellow walking down the beach again and told my wife I’d be back.  Grabbed my phone, pen and note pad and headed toward the water.  When he reached me I motioned for him to come and sit with me at water’s edge.  Told him I didn’t want a shell phone, but would be willing to give him something for his time if he would talk to me.  Wasn’t long before he was sitting on the chair next to me telling about the product he sells.  Devano, aka “Skinny”, has been selling his shell phones since graduating from high school more than ten years ago.  He told me the competition for the tourist’s dollar is tough and you need a “pitch line” to be successful.  He works every day of the year, morning to night, selling the shell phones.  He told me the conch was one of the best products that the Bahama islands has.  Plentiful and you can make a variety of edible meals from them.  He decided to try and sell it with something else in mind.  He grinds the pointed end off the shell, removes the “vein” from near the area he has just removed and fills the original hole, that had been made to release the suction of the conch so it could be removed from the shell, with liquid nail and he has a shell that you can blow into to make the horn noise.  And, to call it a shell phone was just pure genius!  Told me that his shell phone will be to the Bahamas what the cheese steak is to Philadelphia.  But, Devano is more than just a shrewd salesman, he is a great guy who loves his island home.  We spent time talking about the government in power at present.  He is all for his island gaining their independence from England and getting rid of the “Commonwelath” title they now have.  Told me Turks and Caicos has done so and he’s in favor of his island doing the same.  This guy is extremely interesting to talk with as well as knowledgable about every phase of island life.  I suggested he run for office and he said he doesn’t have the means to raise the large amount of money needed to run, but would love to someday.  Devano is in his late 20’s and will someday be a force in determining the direction his island will move in all phases of island life and business.  He realizes that there is a new bred of tourist that has arrived on the island in the past few years and he realizes his island must prepare and plan for that new generation of tourist.  A visionary who will eventually lead the way in the tourist trade. Just wait and see!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.