You're gonna hate this, but one day I took a mental health day off from teaching and rode the bus downtown here in San Antonio. I went to the cigar store in the old Menger Hotel, got a couple of great smokes and then went out to sit on a bench in Alamo Plaza and enjoy one. Finished it on this beautiful Spring day and decided to get a raspa or snow cone as they are called up north. There were two vendors, one at each end of the plaza. I chose the middle age woman closest to the Alamo, placed my order, paid my dollar and just was chatting with her. She asked if I was homeless. I replied that no, I was a high school teacher and skipped out for a day. She laughed and said she understood because she had been a teacher before she got into raspas. Turned out she owned both stands, she or her husband and kids ran them, it cost $200 a year for the Alamo Plaza location permit, they sometimes stayed home on really cold days(we get about 6 of those a year) and she had never been happier. I asked how she could live on that salary instead of teaching(she and I worked for SAISD and made about $50000 a year) and she laughed again. She told me that Spring, Summer and Fall days, 10-5, they averaged between $2000-$3000 a day, depending on conventions, Alamo Bowl and so on. Their supplies were little paper cups, plastic bottles of syrups and crushed ice. That was both locations. She said it cost her about $.18-$.20 to make a raspa and they could make them cheaper, but they really filled them up with syrup. I sat there smoking my other cigar and watched tourists, workers, well, lots of folks stop by and grab a raspa. I left at noon and I promised myself never to look down on a raspa seller again. I guess maybe location is everything...
