Canutito comes up with his own ‘cambalache’

Una mañana Grampo Caralampio got up con mucho hambre. Tenía ganas de comer algo bien appetizing como chile con frijoles o menudo. He sat down en la cocina saying: “I want of eat chile and beans or tripe soup como los que hacen allá en el cow chart.”

Canutito snickered y le respondió: “Grampo, I think you mean que you want chile con frijoles o menudo like the kind they make allá en el chow cart y no del ‘cow chart’.”

In the olden days,” grampo mused, “los chileros would go de puerta en puerta; going from door to door vendiendo su chile molido y chile Caribe. A veces, those chile venders would come en sus pickups y también traiban cosas como harina de chaquegüe o harina de atole además del chile. Sometimes they also brought alverjones; I used to love those peas.”

Grama Cuca happened to come into the kitchen mientras que el grampo estaba hablando.

She contributed: “Y mucho más antes; in the olden days, los indios venían from door to door with big bundles called ‘envoltorios’. Los envoltorios were usually filled with chokecherries or wild plums; They would come to trade el capulín y el pululú for other things that we might have como azúcar o café.

“Didn’t they try to sell their goods por dinero instead of for sugar or coffee, grama?” Canutito asked her con mucho interés.

“Nadie tenía any money in those days, m’hijo,” Grama Cuca replied. “Estábamos en un Great Depression. Era un simple exchange de cosas;

my goods por tus cosas; se llamaba ‘un cambalache’. Así comenzaron los great trade fairs aquí in this area.”

“A veces si un ranchero tenía manzanas y otro tenía maíz,” grama said, “entonces hacían un cambalache; an exchange of apples for corn; así both of them tenían a little of everything.”

“That is so cool!” Canutito squealed. “Habían otras clases de cambalaches where there is no money exchange, grampo?”

“Oh sí, m’hijo,” Grampo Caralampio said. “Cuando yo era un muchachito en la elementary school I only had un comic book de ‘Casper the Friendly Ghost.’

Un grupo de school kids had otros comic books. We got together y feriamos las caricaturas. After we exchanged the comics, we did it again la otra semana y también again on the following week. Ya para el end of the summer, I had read un bonche de comic books sin gastar un solo nicle.”

“That is so smart, grampo,” Canutito praised him. I think I’m going to look around por todo mi cuarto a ver what kinds of mugritas there might be que puedo usar para comenzar un cambalache of my very own.”

Canutito searched his whole room y halló unas cleary marbles, un trompo, a jigsaw puzzle yun GI Joe. He took todas sus canicas, his top, su rompe-cabezas y su muñeco GI Joe to school. Puso todos sus trading items arriba de la mesa and waited for the other kids que trujieran sus cosas pero nobody brought nada pa’ferear. No estaban interesãos en sus wares. He just had to come up con algotra cosa to interest them.

Canutito went into the pantry y halló something to interest todos los escueleros. Soon he had un bonche de plebecita gathered around him. Cuando llegó pa’la casa, Canutito had sus bolsas stretched out con tantas cositas. When grampo asked him cómo se hizo tan rico, he told him: “I just showed them pictures en un catálogo full of ladies underwear como pantes y girdles and it turned out to be la cosa más interesante that any of them had ever seen …”