Or this could happen to you....

Rusty:

Very amusing, thank you.

To expand on a common cautionary tale we’ll call “Do not underestimate little old ladies with umbrellas”.

My mother tells a similar story involving a couple of young men who thought they could ride by on their motor scooter and grab my mother’s colleges video camera as she filmed the Eiffel Tower and disappear into the Parisian traffic with impunity.

Rather than the easy success the young men anticipated my mother's friends, a group of art teachers in a club called “Creativity through madness” gave them a bit of a surprise. The woman with the camera did not let go and yanked one young man off the scooter, another of the women expressively shared her concern with a particularly sturdy English umbrella not commonly sold outside the UK on the scooter driver in as my mother describes it a swing that would make a baseball hall of fame player take notice. Just to make sure everything was clearly understood one of the other women who is very fluent in French told the young men how misdirected their adventures were using a great deal of French not covered in your high school two year curriculum.

My mother said the young men were after a bit more discussion able to find an opening and picked up the scooter fleeing bloodied and clearly in pain. My mother’s participation remained undefined until her death but as she wore Doc Martin boots (she said if the pope wears them they must be OK) when walking in Europe and has been known to get enthusiastic on occasion I can only believe she jumped in as well.


Timothy

Thank you Rusty. I laughed so hard it made me cry.

Bill N.Y.