This little plot outside a shop near my home is carefully tended by the ladies of the shop, so they were, unsurprisingly, angry when someone started to dig up the flowers at night. A week or so ago this notice appeared. I'm sorry the writing, which has weathered a few storms over the past few days, isn't clear in the photo. It reads,
Don't steal the flowers - thief!
And then, in a typically Sicilian gesture of tolerance, the ladies have added,
If you ask us for some, we'll give them to you.
Don't steal the flowers - thief!
And then, in a typically Sicilian gesture of tolerance, the ladies have added,
If you ask us for some, we'll give them to you.
In another nearby shop, a recently vacated furniture store, one bed, with bedclothes, has been left in the middle of the ground floor. And there someone sleeps every night, very cosily tucked in so that you can only see his woollen hat on the pillow, clothes neatly folded over the one chair that has also been left behind, in full view of anyone who cares to glance at the shop's window. [He is still there at 10 am.] How he gets in, I don't know, for there is no sign of any forcing of the door. The owner, who has not moved far away, must know about his nocturnal visitor by now, for news travels fast in small towns and I can only suppose that, in another gesture of tolerance, he has decided to turn a blind eye. I have neither the heart nor the wish to invade the sleeping man's privacy by taking a photo for he probably gets little of it. He is doing no one any harm and "There but for the grace of God go I...."
11 comments:
Ah, Lady Limoncello, you did, of course anticipate, I'd be delighted by the second part of your post, hm?
As for the first: Such a pity that some contemporaries would just not respect what is others (little) delight.
That's quite touching! It says a lot for the town.
I see the Godfather's 19 postmen have been arrested?
What pleasant attitudes. I doubt the same would happen on a Romford shopping street
What do you think the ladies were going to give the naughty tealeaf? Some free flowers in addition to the ones he/she already purloined??~ or a smack-in-da-face...
!!?!
That's a terrible thing when someone puts that effort in, only for it to be destroyed. You mentioned tolerance. I should think it might have required respect.
Caro signor Sean, written with you in mind! Hi, lakeviewer. I think so, too. Just reading about that, WW. Hi, jams. Yes, it's quite refreshing. Hi, Gleds. I think they were really going to give him or her some more flowers! I agree, James, but we don't know the circumstances of the person who took them.
Your stories are a lovely indication of the quality of life in your chosen home. Such a pleasure to read in these materialistic times.
Thanks, Dragonstar. I am always amazed at how tolerant Sicilians are.
Beautiful Sicilian stories!
Thank you, jann.
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