The Vegetable Lady

so ... ever since i discovered this ol' farm lady & her fruit/veggie stand, i been goin' back there on a regular basis & buyin' whatever she's brought that day. today i was makin' this *farmer's salad* and i bought some fresh garden growed cucumbers, cantalope, green peppers, onions, homegrowed t'maters and some dill weed. this ol' farm lady is about the most beautiful thing i've laid mah weary eyes on ~ she is 70 years old if she's a day, tanned as leather, wears an old tattered straw hat and a bandanna around her neck, men's khaki work pants and an old pair of wellington boots looked to be about as old as she is.

she sets up her veggie stand every morning in the parking lot of an old gas station, got a couple hand painted signs (painted on a sheet of plywood) that she props up against the side her old chevy pickup truck ... and commences to do business out the tailgate dat ol' truck. she says she has several gardens on her farm a few miles outside topeka, where she was born & raised ... and still lives wit her dogs & cats. today i noticed an old dog was layin' in the shade under her truck ... dog looked pretty mangy, but i have no doubt that if i'd so much as looked cross-eyed at that ol' gal, that dog woulda come out from under that truck & ripped me to shreds lickety-split. i asked her if she did any canning & preserving, and she told me she did some ... but says at the end of the day, if she's got any veggies left, she drops them off at a local homeless shelter on her way home.

she says she been selling her veggies on that corner for about 35 years, since long before the gas station was there ... and i can only hope she's still there 35 years from now ... long after dat gas station is gone.

~~~**~~~**~~~

Michael Martin Murphy ~ Old Desert Rat

She sits on the front porch of the old house that stands scorched
Under the sunstroke of the desert day that choked
Her old man who fell in the sun

With rattlesnakes and keepsakes, old boxes of cornflakes
Grammaphones and gemstones, and three unclaimed doorframes
And bleached bones and rocks by the ton

Goodbye old desert rat, you half crazy wildcat
You knew where it was at, what life's all about
You saver of catalogs, king of the prairie dogs
Success is survival and you toughed it out
You toughed it out...

You old loudmouth rockhound, you kept the kids spellbound
Half crazy and sunbaked, you earned your own grubstake
By breakin' your back all day long

With junk art and dump carts, old Model-T parts
Frustrated, outdated and uneducated
At eighty you still wrote good songs

Goodbye old desert rat, you half crazy wildcat
You knew where it was at, what life's all about
You saver of catalogs, king of the prairie dogs
Success is survival and you toughed it out
You toughed it out...