(this is annie)


no witty allusion today

There's a small woman who walks around my neighborhood. She's usually somewhere on Clark, asking passers-by for change. "Oh please, can I have some money for the bus?" she says. If the person gives her some money, she asks for more. If the person declines, she stands close and says, "Please? Oh come on, please?" until she's handed some change. She moves to the next person, repeating the process. When the bus comes barreling down the street and stops near her, she then boards the bus and begs the bus driver to let her ride the bus for free. On Saturday, she was leaving the 7-Eleven on Clark and Belmont, a dozen instant lottery tickets clutched in her hands.

Also on Clark, down by Armitage, a kind-hearted mentally disabled man takes long walks. He's missing most, if not all of his teeth. A few months ago, my parents and I were on a Sunday stroll, and we saw him approaching. "Hello," he said with a big smile. "Hello! How are you?" replied my father. Big grin. After we passed the man, my father explained that he'd seen the man decades ago, doing the same thing.

I live in my parents' old neighborhood. The church where they married is a block away, and their first apartment is around the corner, down a couple of blocks. In a few weeks, I'll move to a new nest in a nearby neighborhood. Oddly enough, my apartment is two houses down from the bed and breakfast where Evan and I stayed on our first vacation to Chicago together. Actually, the bed and breakfast has been demolished to make way for condominiums.

0 Responses to “no witty allusion today”

Post a Comment




© 2009 avt

custom counter