Third Street Mall

    I have heard many say how their lives are so richer because they don't have kids. As far as  I am concerned, that is bull shit!  I can't remember having so much fun with daughter number two than Sunday. A day we traveled to Beverly Hill's Farmer's Market and afterwards, the Third Street Mall. So come along with us as we begin at the Farmer's Market in Beverly Hills.
   
   "Dad I thought we were going to the Third Street Mall in Santa Monica."
    "Dear you heard me say Beverly Hills Farmer's Market."
 We parked in the library parking lot and walked a few steps to the market. I was a sunny perfect day. My daughter seemed a bit flat but still her mood was elevated -- after all she was with me, her Dad. Earlier at her Rat Trap apartment on Pico, her refrigerator frowned. It was bare and needed nourishment. So we walked and my daughter looked.
  "Dad could you buy me a few small potatoes and those Persian cucumbers? My daughter never looked so happy. Of course who couldn't resist buying a few overpriced items at this famous market. Everyone bought, even though the avocados sold for four dollars each and everything was so overpriced.
   Who cared, this was Beverly Hills and the one hundred dollar bills came out and Ben Franklin did not even blush. Everyone was bold in showing off their colors. We listened to some 50's music and sat at a round table. Then it happened. A crackling sound. A man at the next table had broken his plastic chair. He placed it aside and removed another one.
   I sat back and laughed. "Guess you need to lose some weight!" I just could not resist. A few minutes later, my chair collapsed. And do you think I felt embarrassed. Hell know. I put on an act with my legs up in the air and holding my head.
  After a visit to Fed Ex on Elm, we returned to the Rat Trap apartments on Pico Blvd. For fifteen years the owner has upped the rent 3 percent each year -- the son-of-a bitch. Why upstairs it gets to be one hundred and twenty degrees in the summer.
   I went to the Glad Market down the street to fill part of her refrigerator. When I returned she made a lunch for me out-of-this-world. And my daughter had seconds and thirds. I then drove her to the Third Street Mall.
   Now I don't quite know what Coney Island is like, but people were walking over each other. Tourists from every nation in the world were sampling foods or looking at the high end of fashion from Arizona Street to the Mall on Colorado.
   A dog puppet was singing and playing a guitar and further down, a two young Chinese kids were playing rock and roll. And all of this for free.
   "Dad take my picture. No turn the camera around. She was in heaven, I mean my daughter. Now if anyone tells me they are happy they did not have kids, let them know what they missed.  Even my oldest one co-singed a rent contract for me.
   
   
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