The trees are bursting out in Washington. The white blossoms of the Bradford pear trees are in bloom now, soon to be followed by the cherry trees. Very often we are away, but not this year. We are going to enjoy them all. Of course for the allergic folks the blossoms are very trying, so there is a lot of sputtering and sneezing and coughing in our home. I think the sight of the trees in bloom is worth every sneeze.
Yesterday we drove home from the farm on the slow road. The interstate highways takes us about fifteen miles from the farm, and we always take the fast roads when we are arriving. But we take the slow route home. The roads we wind along to home are the old old roads, built years ago. Many were wagon trails and horse trails, and of course there are towns all along the way. Actually there are several different ways to get home,and we alternate them, depending on our whim and the traffic. Most people don't like those old roads, so we mostly have the old roads to ourselves. We leave the big highway just jammed with cars, and on the little roads we are alone. It is bliss. Of course it takes us an hour longer coming home those old roads, but it is worth every extra minute. Also on those roads are many many antique stores, and sometimes I can even get Ken to stop and look. Once we purchased an inexpensive hand carved decoy on alternate 40. All the other decoys were four times the cost. I called Ken over and we decided to buy it. After I had competed my purchase, I asked the owner of the store why this decoy was so cheap. He told me that it was from an unknown place, carved by an unknown artist. Except the decoy was carve in Port Moutton, N.S. . a town very close to our town Liverpool. The carvers name was Roy. We told the store owner where the duck was from, but he did not care. The next time we were in Nova Scotia we tracked down the carver, by asking folks in that little town. It turned out he was a retired fisherman, who turned to carving to fill his time. He was in hie 80s, and was still spry. He was very interest in what we paid for the duck. But neither Ken or I could remember.
I am sure it is a definate charcter flaw. I can not remember how much I have paid for an object. Even ten minutes after I bought it I can not recall. I only care when I am looking at something whether I can afford the piece. If the answer is yes, and I want the object, then I buy it and forget all about the price. I am sure this is a character flaw. The trouble is, Ken is as bad as me about prices. Not so long ago we were discussing what we sold our Old Spring Road for in 1987. We both guessed. Then Ken looked up the file and discovered that we were both on hundred thousand off the right price. I was one hundred dollars low and Ken was the same amount high. How can this happen?
The moral of the story is to drive on the back roads, stop at the antique stores and keep good records,
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Further to the tale of the meeting with Maurice Roy in Port Mouton: Mt Roy had some partially finished decoys on the shelf which Ruth tried to buy. He said they were all spoken for. Then Ruth asked if he could phone her when he had some available. He replied "I don't have a phone because the Mounties listen in on all the phone calls. They knocked on the door of a friend of mine and went right to the freezer where he had his drugs. The only way they could have known was if they listened to his phone calls". So Ruth never got another Maurice Roy decoy but Ken got a cane and Pat and Mal Allington bought a lighthouse from him which is now in the living room at Western head.
Dave.
Everything my Brother said is true. It was a very funny scene.
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