THE FOOTNOTES

“I like that shirt.” I had heard that before, but this time a young woman, a stranger standing next to me in the supermaket aisle was the speaker. This caught my attention.
“Thanks. There’s a story that goes with this shirt if you would like to hear it.” I knew she had no choice, so I told her about the young neighbor lady up the street. Let’s call her Michelle, who had an unusual tag sale. We dropped by to be neighborly.
“I like this shirt, Michelle..” “How much is it?”
“Oh, I don’t take money from neighbors. If you like it, just take it.” And I did.. How do you like that for a tag sale?
Numerous people have commented on the shirt since then. This made me wonder what life would have been like if I had been attired thusly 65 years ago.
The free shirt reflected the neighbor’s philosophy of life, I guess. From time to time, valuable objects appeared at the curb in front of her house. Free for the taking.
One afternoon, on my daily constitutional, I walked by her house and two paintings were at the curb. Being interested in the topic, I stopped and examined them. Why would anybody throw these away? I was very interested in one which appeared to be a Mediterranean fishing settlement, of some sort. I debated with myself on whether I should take it home. I didn’t want other neighbors looking upon me as a junk picker. I continued my walk and was haunted by the prospect of somebody else discovering what I considered a gem. On the way back from my walk, I was pleased to see that the paining was still there. Let the rest of the neighbors think what they would. I wanted the picture, and I took it home.
The painting was even better than I thought. I cleaned it up and mounted it on a prominent wall in the living room where it remains today.
Sometimes as I lie in my reclining chair facing that picture, I observe that changes in the light in the room result in changed highlights which illuminate different parts of the picture, much as changing times of day would be reflected in changing shadows, and highlights of any scene Sort of like Monet’s hay stacks,
If you think the painting was something, you should have seen the almost new vacuum cleaner, and huge box of assorted basketballs, soccer balls, and playground balls took their places on the curb and on the I Don’t Believe Anybody wou;d throw this out list. I took them , too.