Mireya Valez's cell phone bill was spiraling out of control. She needed money fast but she was afraid to tell her mother. She turned to a familiar place for help: the San Jose Flea Market.
"I basically went vendor to vendor and tried to find a job," the 17-year-old Foothill High School senior said.
A week later, she was hired to sell shoes full-time on the weekends and was being paid on commission. Her problems were over.
"On an average Saturday or Sunday, I leave this place with about $50 to $60," she said.
Mireya is just one of dozens of teenagers, and a handful of even younger children, who work at the Berryessa Road flea market, a bustling bazaar of goods and commerce. To some, a job at the flea market means money to spend for fun and clothes. To others, working means pitching in to help their families. But they all learn about the value of patience and responsibility, and working hard under tough conditions.
A sea of white tarps acts as canopies over Space 401, where she and three other teen-agers sell men's Oxfords, women's sandals and high heels. But the tarps can't spare her from the sticky heat of a 95-degree day.
"It's all right. It's just hot,'' she said, while admitting she'd rather be working in an air-conditioned mall.
For Mireya, looking for work at the flea market was almost second nature. When she was a child, her mother often took her along while shopping there.
Eight-year-old Mahmoud Radi is already creating his own memories at the flea market. Mahmoud, 4-feet-11 with light-brown hair and dazzling green eyes, plays an integral role in the clothing stall that his family operates -- the boy translates Spanish and English to his Arabic-speaking father, Husam Radi.
"He speaks for me when I can't communicate with the customers,'' said the elder Radi. "I like this job for my son because he used to be afraid to speak English when he was first learning, now he is confident. I watch him. Everything he needs to know he can learn here. I try to give him help so he will be successful in his future."
Mahmoud, who grew up in Guatemala, learned to speak English during school at Forest Park Elementary in Fremont.
"I can sell just about anything,'' he boasted while his father listened and shook his head. "I can trick customers into paying a lot. I'll put prices high and then bring them down and still make money."
And he does make money, about $15 to $20 a day on the weekends. Currently, Mahmoud has about $135 saved up.
He pointed to a vendor across the way that sells motorcycles. "Just $70 more and I can get that motorcycle," he said.
Around the corner, past produce row where you can smell the scent of cherries, mangoes and fresh bread, is Space F101 and Gurpreet Kaur, a.k.a. Preety, a 12-year-old incoming eighth grader at Martin Murphy Junior High.
As her mother's main assistant for the past three years, Gurpreet has seen it all at "Hardware and Canopy,'' a stall that sells equipment to other vendors who need tarps and poles to set up their businesses.
"The customers can be annoying sometimes, but I've learned to deal with it," Gurpreet said, referring to some who complain about prices. "I have learned patience and, of course, responsibility."
The black-haired girl works weekends and Wednesdays -- during the summer -- from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
"I don't get paid," she said. "My mom doesn't hand me money at the end of the day but she does buy me all my clothes and everything I need, so in a way I do get paid."
Once in a while, Gurpreet's mother will give her a day off. But in reality, Gurpreet has little to say about it.
"She doesn't really have a choice, I'll ask her to help sometimes, but either way she's coming to work with me," said Gurpreet's mother, Randeer Kaur.
For Gurpreet and her mother, working at the flea market has been a time for bonding. Since they are the only family members working the stand, Gurpreet tells her mom anything and everything -- boys and school. She may not be sitting on stacks of money but the memories are everlasting and make her work experience worthwhile.
Like Gurpreet, 17-year-old Thien Le works at the flea market to help his family. He gives the $50 to $60 he earns while working the weekend at his uncle's gardening equipment stand to his parents.
The James Logan High School senior said his parents need the money more then he does because they are still getting on their feet here in the U.S. after emigrating from Vietnam two years ago.
"I'd rather work at the flea market than anywhere else because my family works here," Thien said.