Its insanity.
Every year for three weeks the Ogden, Orr, Fajans women have committed crimes to fulfill their obsessions. Three generations of temporary insanity. My mom sneaks around businesses, college campuses and asks my children to be her "lookouts". My mom is pretty sneaky, because she rarely gets in trouble. I got drunk at the golf course one time and got caught out on the driving range by the golf pro! And I almost got arrested at a rest stop.
Lilacs! Yes, I know you feel the same way - I've read stories. Why do you think they had a police officer secretly hiding out to bust people at that rest area! Its worse than a gay sex sting! And my defense to the state trooper? My grandmother says cutting them makes the tree bloom more next year. Actually what my grandmother said was BREAKING THEM OFF made them bloom more next year, because she was justifying her own lilac stealing habit. But I had to explain the clippers in my hand....
What is it about lilacs that makes us want to steal other peoples before we cut our own? Why can't you ever grow enough? Driving during this season is torture because all you see are gorgeous lilacs everywhere just waiting to be stolen - its like a budweiser commercial for an alcoholic! And then the scent wafts in your car window....
In Garden City we knew all the best places. For a while it was the Doubleday parking lot. We would run into other women there with baskets and kids in the car as lookouts. The Garden City police were a bit like NL police..."oh thats just Dorothy Orr's granddaughter - she's not illegally drinking, or parking or waiting for a drug pusher, she just stealing lilacs!"
And then before you know it, like a heat wave, the temporary insanity is gone. And so are the lilacs. The crime wave has ended and the women of my family settle back into their regular lives.
What is the lesson learned?
Me, I like to think its that we should be a bit more like that year round. Life is too sane. But thats just the peri - mid life crisis talking!
2 comments:
Great shot, Ter!!
The (NH) Governor's Lilac and Wildflower Commission is sponsoring a lilac photo contest... This could be the winner! I've printed the article that was in the Monitor a month ago and will bring it to Jack's. Article lists places where the entry forms are available (unfortunately, not at Jack's).
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