WHERE IS IT?

IS

If you stop long enough to turn off U. S. Highway 59 as it curves through Atlanta, you may find this roadside vendor. You may think he’s not permanent or established or settled. But you’d be wrong. He’s been coming here for years and has an enthusiastic clientele. The public enjoys coming to see him. Recently, he was selling Tyler rose plants. Do you know him? See answer below.

Answer

Dennis Duncan is 75 this year, and the Citizens Journal first met him in 2010, selling roadside as he is today. He’s still along U. S. Highway 59 in Atlanta, parked with his truck and trailer to offer the public vegetables, plants, fruit, melons and what other items he can find.

Recently last week, he was selling Tyler roses. He’d driven to Tyler to pick them up. They looked well cared for and well presented.

“I’ve been selling like this since I was 16,” Duncan had said in that earlier interview. Then as now, he enjoys talking to those who come by.

He has a selling point. “I’m a lot cheaper than the stores and I guarantee the quality.”

And here’s another. “My mother and dad said always to be honest with people and it will pay off.”

He’s retired, but there’s not enough money to stay retired on, so, he sells, and the public who knows him buys.

Here’s one of his general routines. About June, he’ll start driving his pickup to Dixie, LA, leaving at 2 in the morning. He needs to be in line for the loading of fruit and vegetables and to be headed back by daylight.

He’ll do this twice a week. Summer is prime time for watermelon and peas. On some days in Atlanta, he will have pearl onions, garlic, avocadoes, tomatoes, potatoes, grapefruit and sweet potatoes. Sometimes his wait along the roadside is long. Some days he may not sell much.

“That’s when everyone seems too busy to stop.”

But this doesn’t bother him. It’s getting to be summer and that’s both Duncan’s busy time and hard time. He’ll sell more, but he has to survive the heat.

The roadside vendor is often seen in Atlanta, but he spends other days in other towns such as Hughes Springs and Jefferson. People look for him, and once they find him, they return. He is, as they say, a good businessman, local and talkative.