Thursday, September 11, 2008

Watering Acorns

Sitting on a park bench, waiting for my bus connection, I gazed upon this old guy squirting water onto the soil from a squeeze ketchup bottle. His cart contained three gallons of plastic water jugs and a large coffee can. He was quite diligent. I thought, OK, he planted and is watering acorns, yet another crazy "street person". I looked up and all the trees in sight were Elms. Uh huh.

Next a blind man and a seeing eye dog came up and walked repeatedly right into the guys cart and trampled where he was working. The old guy says, "Hey, what are you blind?" and looks up. The blind guy apologizes and clomps away. I look around for the "Candid Camera".

I finally asked, "What, pray tell, are you watering sir?" Still thinking acorns. He replies, "I am catching worms. They cost $2.58 a dozen. I can't afford to go fishing otherwise." Whoa, a real nutter, I think.

He then stops and walks over to me and shows me his secret. A teaspoon of Coleman's powdered mustard and water mixed up in the ketchup squeeze bottle. I am intrigued, but still dubious. Squirt, squirt. I watch....out pops a six inch worm, again and again, one from every hole, in seconds of the application. Uh huh.

My bus finally arrived. I thanked him for the transfer of knowledge. Now I know how to catch worms in the middle of a dry day! More useful survival knowledge to add to my collection. Now where did I put that squirt bottle?