Interesting

It was a beautiful, sunny day in Colorado. It's days like this, I dream up any excuse to run to the store-just so I can drive my car. I don't like shopping at Whole Foods much, but they carry items other grocers don't. It was the perfect place to stop while out on a leisurely drive.

I didn't get too far through the produce department, when an older woman approached me.

"It's amazing we can get eat at all, with the prices so high." I turned and smiled. Before I could respond, she pushed her cart closer.

"The few things I buy, I want to eat them up as soon as I get home. I get so hungry shopping. Then I don't have any left." She looked me up and down, as if sizing me up, then continued, "You'd think we'd all lose weight-but I can see that we don't." Ouch. I believe I was included in that comment.

"And look at tsyou!" I was beginning to feel a wee bit self conscious. "Tsyou are dressed like it was summer." Her thick accent caused me to wonder if she was from Jersey. "You know, it is steell winter. That is how you get the flu. It may be nice now, but in a couple of hours, it will be cold. You will see." I could only nod.

"Now look at me," she said, pointing to her black wool coat, and then to her bright orange sweater. "You see these?" She asked, tugging at the fabric of her fleece pants. "I stayed up late last night making them from an old piece of fabric I had laying around." Her black pants didn't look new, and had quite a bit of cat hair entwined in the material.

"I just did a little of this, and a bit of that." As I examined her clothing, I noticed the tangerine colored sweater was hand knit. I remarked how beautiful it was." She smiled.

"I made it myself, and this too." She pointed to what looked like a daffodil yellow silk blouse, peeking out at her neckline. "You know, the clothes these days, aiya, they are so cheap and thin." I noticed her look me up and down again. Although my top was a bright coral color, it could certainly be considered flimsy. It is one I usually pull on in the morning, when I'm working around the house. Normally I change before going out, but today I didn't. I had my hair cut and colored last night and in spite of my flimsy shirt, I felt like a million bucks. Funny how a good hair day can do that.

"Oh, and let me show you something else." She took off her hat, which wasn't quite the orange of her sweater, more of a cantaloupe color. She turned the hat over to reveal the inside. I looked, but wasn't sure what I was supposed to see. It was tannish and tattered looking. "You see? It is a beret. But I painted it." I realized the beige areas were merely the former color where the paint hadn't reached. The paint had caused the hat to be stiff, but it fit well upon her head, like a perfectly puffed beret.

She ran her fingers through her white hair, trying to smooth it down. "I quit coloring my hair because I look good in white hair, don't you think?" She set the beret atop her head. "People are always asking me what I do with my time. I am creating fashion...clothing out of nothing, beautiful clothing and fashion...if only I could market..." Her voice trailed off as if she was deep in thought. My guess is she often wondered how she could make money from her fashions-from- nothing, but hadn't come up with the means yet.

"And thiz jacket, it used to have a zipper. But I could not close it anymore, so I took it out. And you know those long coats, this was like that, so I just shortened it. And see how good it fits?"

She bent down to show me her shoes. I'd never seen anything quite like them. They looked a bit like sneakers on 4 inch platforms. "Theze had none of this," motioning to the laced area,"I painted all of thiz." I told her she was certainly doing an amazing job of transforming things into unique, one-of-a-kind fashion pieces.

"Yes, yes," and with that, she began pushing her cart down the aisle, "I'll be seeing you." She waved. I wasn't sure what to think of this little lady. I went back to my shopping.

A few aisles later, I heard her talking to the man at the meat counter. I busied myself reading labels. A moment later, she passed me. Her mouth was full. "You just missed it. Some tasty meat samples back there." She kept walking. It was then that I began to wonder. Whole foods usually has lots of samples throughout the store. This little lady most likely counts this as a meal, devouring every sample she can get. Her way of supplementing her food budget. She certainly was resourceful. I couldn't help but wondered what had drawn her to speak to me. Besides my foolishness of not dressing properly, I think it was the the bright shirt, and stylin' hair. I didn't fit in with the usual crunchy granola clientele of the Natural Grocer.