Today is Love Your Basil Day according to Susan Wittig Albert, author of the China Bayles series. Plant lots of basil..........and other herbs.
Some twenty-eight, or so, years ago when we first moved to Deltona, FL, which was actually quiet and rural at that time, I shopped at the Winn Dixie on Deltona Blvd, the only grocery store in all of Deltona. I was in my own little world walking up and down unfamiliar aisles, pushing the cart and reading cereal boxes or checking prices when I spotted Ellen Veinotte, from Park Street in Hudson, at the other end of the aisle. The feeling was surreal and I had to stop in my tracks and refocus. Was I in Massachusetts.......no......Florida. Ellen had moved from Hudson to Deltona and was teaching English at Galaxy Middle. Neither of us had known the other moved to Florida.
Today we were at Cliff's favorite hole-in-the-wall eating place, Downtown Pizza, when a familiar face walked through the door and I couldn't take my eyes off her. Where did we know her from? Was she out of uniform so I couldn't place her. Her haircut stood out.......something about the hair. Trying to act nonchalantly, I kept eating my salad, glancing up at her quickly so she wouldn't see me looking her way, while I wracked my brain to bring her into my memory. Focus on the haircut, not unusual or odd, but very familiar. Where ever I knew her from, the hair was always neatly cut and looked the same. She's a hairdresser. I knew she was from a salon but not the one we go to now so I started picturing all the stores along the 4-lane as we drive into town, hoping to jolt the brain into remembering something. Suddenly, like a flash of lightning, it came to me and I barged over to her table to interrupt her lunch. "You're from Deltona, aren't you?!" She told us she had been trying to figure out why we looked familiar to her without obviously staring at us. She managed the Great Clips on Howland Blvd. (where we always got our haircuts) until she recently retired and moved to Murphy. Small world! and full of surprises. Murphy is full of Floridians, many of whom moved here from South Florida as much as 15-20 years ago to avoid the city-like atmosphere developing and changing their peaceful way of life. It's actually surprising we haven't bumped into people we know before this.
Some twenty-eight, or so, years ago when we first moved to Deltona, FL, which was actually quiet and rural at that time, I shopped at the Winn Dixie on Deltona Blvd, the only grocery store in all of Deltona. I was in my own little world walking up and down unfamiliar aisles, pushing the cart and reading cereal boxes or checking prices when I spotted Ellen Veinotte, from Park Street in Hudson, at the other end of the aisle. The feeling was surreal and I had to stop in my tracks and refocus. Was I in Massachusetts.......no......Florida. Ellen had moved from Hudson to Deltona and was teaching English at Galaxy Middle. Neither of us had known the other moved to Florida.
Today we were at Cliff's favorite hole-in-the-wall eating place, Downtown Pizza, when a familiar face walked through the door and I couldn't take my eyes off her. Where did we know her from? Was she out of uniform so I couldn't place her. Her haircut stood out.......something about the hair. Trying to act nonchalantly, I kept eating my salad, glancing up at her quickly so she wouldn't see me looking her way, while I wracked my brain to bring her into my memory. Focus on the haircut, not unusual or odd, but very familiar. Where ever I knew her from, the hair was always neatly cut and looked the same. She's a hairdresser. I knew she was from a salon but not the one we go to now so I started picturing all the stores along the 4-lane as we drive into town, hoping to jolt the brain into remembering something. Suddenly, like a flash of lightning, it came to me and I barged over to her table to interrupt her lunch. "You're from Deltona, aren't you?!" She told us she had been trying to figure out why we looked familiar to her without obviously staring at us. She managed the Great Clips on Howland Blvd. (where we always got our haircuts) until she recently retired and moved to Murphy. Small world! and full of surprises. Murphy is full of Floridians, many of whom moved here from South Florida as much as 15-20 years ago to avoid the city-like atmosphere developing and changing their peaceful way of life. It's actually surprising we haven't bumped into people we know before this.
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