The View from Parson Street Nose

I had come out without my brolly, so I dodged into Wilkinson’s to avoid a sudden sharp shower.

Finding my way blocked by a large chap who was spouting furiously about something cricket related I tried to squeeze past him, but he began walking backwards and crunched down painfully onto my foot.

I yelped at him to look where he was going and he completely flummoxed me by replying: “I can’t look behind me can I, missus?”

It was a valid point but it didn’t help my throbbing toe one bit and an apology would have been nice.

I limped down towards the hair-dyes to see if my brand of tint was on special offer, but couldn’t see the shelf as there was a young couple standing blocking my view.

“I wants it to look like an autumn leaf,” said the girl, picking up a box and comparing it with the packet in her other hand. “A nice bright one.”

“That’ll make a change for you, won’t it?” replied her boyfriend, to which the girl hurled one of the boxes at his head, nearly catching me with it as he ducked out of the way.

I beat a hasty retreat before she threw the other box.

The sun was shining brightly when I emerged from the store, so I thought I would venture down to the second hand shop to look at the bargains.

Just as I came up to where ‘Man of Towels’ has his stall, I heard a car alarm make a noise like a wolf whistle; Man of Towels dutifully obliged and gave a piercing wolf whistle in response.

A couple of elderly ladies walked past him and headed my way, grinning like two Cheshire cats.

“He whistled at us, didn’t he?” said one of the women loudly.

“At me more like, I’m younger than you.”

“Not by much you isn’t. He’s got taste, he can see life in the old dog yet.”

“Old cat more like,” laughed the other one.

I turned and watched them walk away. They both looked as if they had left 80 behind them years ago and I could well imagine them arguing over the boy down the road as they spent a night in an air-raid shelter during the Blitz.

It was good to see friendship like that and it reminded me to phone my own best-friend when I returned home.