In this case, I was crossing Bloomfield Avenue in Montclair when I came to this pickup truck parked in front of the RockTec music store.
These red racks stopped me in my tracks. I took a picture.
Just then two large men walked out of the music store and briskly toward the truck. I thought I was about to get one of those "Can I help you?" greetings, which of course aren’t greetings at all.
As one of them came around to the driver’s side, where I was standing, and the other opened the passenger door, I said, barely looking up, "Are you guys taking off?"
If there was anything in my voice, it was disappointment. They were making off with my subject matter, so to speak. My question should have made no sense to them at all. It was obvious they were taking off in the truck, and what business was it of mine?
But as it happened, my words dovetailed with what was on their minds.
"Yeah, we’re moving the store up Bloomfield Avenue," said the driver, sounding almost glad I asked.
Thus did this journalist stumble across a bit of local news while merely thinking out loud.
Later, looking at the picture, I saw that their new location was right in the window of the store–in plain sight, you might say.