WEBVTT

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During school vacations
and summer time,

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my brother was assigned
to work with the growers

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in the greenhouse and sometimes
on the delivery routes.

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My father expected me to
know the names of plants

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and to get a sense of
the horticultural side

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of the business, too.

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But it was understood I was
meant for the downtown store.

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In retail, where the
clerks dressed in gowns

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they bought on
fantastic markdowns

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from tips passed on to
them by their clerk pals

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at Frank Murphy's
and Field-Schlick.

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Doctors and lawyers
from nearby offices

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came into the showroom
on their lunch hour

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to order flowers for their
wives, usually their wives.

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A dozen long-stemmed
American beauties off season

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in a box with a card and
a sealed envelope paid

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for cash, delivery to some
apartment on Randolph,

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not the man's Lincoln
Avenue address.

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You figure it out.

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"Never ask if they want to
put it on their charge,"

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Ollie told me.

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"Sometimes they'll
want to pay cash never

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ask why it's going
where it's going

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and why it's going
where it's going."

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She put a well-manicured
finger to her lips.

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The silent gesture
of complicity,

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initiating me into
the conspiracy of love

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now that I was old enough to
work at the downtown store.

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This sort of duplicity was not
a greenhouse sort of thing.

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The illicit ways of
desire belong to the world

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of surface and illusion.

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It proved that the
beautiful big room

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of full of exotic flowers
and expensive candy

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was, as my fearful
agoraphobic aunt would

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say, "Just like downtown."

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The work was hard, I suppose.

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On our feet all day, running
around, lifting heavy plants,

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contending with the primadonna
tendencies of the customers,

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but the place had such drama.

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During the holiday rush
when I worked there,

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that the sheer pace
of the day filled

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with the customers demanding
subplots made me happy.

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More than happy.

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I felt important.

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I felt I was doing
something important.

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Well, it came to the same thing.

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A demand for violets
might come in.

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"Violets?

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Is that woman nuts?"

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Mrs. Butler would say,
but then she would somehow

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suss out violets from a
supplier in Minneapolis

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by way of Chicago or New York,
reaching by degrees all the way

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to an Amsterdam clearing
house with a Parma connection

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so that finally little
drenched purple bundles, tied

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with foreign twine, costing
a fortune made someone

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in Kenwood Parkway happy.

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People came in from the cold,
stamping their snowy feet

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vehemently on the carpet.

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They rushed up to
the marble tables

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where the clerks awaited
as at a battlement.

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Some customers came in
looking wild-eyed, holding out

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their shopping lists like
desperate ransom notes.

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"Can you get a poinsettia to
Butte, Montana by tomorrow?"

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We could.

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We could send flowers and candy
just about anywhere you wanted.

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We had it in our power.

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Ollie and Mrs. Butler,
elderly but slim and elegant,

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worked with the
self-possession of head nurses

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in a triage unit.

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At the end of the
day, Ollie took

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the sheaf of telegraph delivery
orders and made her calls,

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speaking low into the
receiver of the telephone

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by her order desk.

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"Los Angeles.

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This is an FTD
order from St Paul."

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The great world was so far away,
but Ollie spoke nonchalantly

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every afternoon to the coast.

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"Let me spell that
for you and would you

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kindly repeat for verification.

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Yes.

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That's love, l-o-v-e
comma Bobby, b-o-b-b-y.

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Yes, Bobby as in yardstick.

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No he doesn't spell it
that way, just the y."

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"You couldn't make any sense
other ones in Alabama, Georgia

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places like that," she
would say off the line.

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"They talked so
funny down there."

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The occasional orders to Europe
were sent in the dead of night

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by telegraph which was
too bad Mrs. Butler said,

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because if we called
them in ourselves,

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they'd let try my French.

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Paree?

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Ici St. Paul.

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Like Ollie and
Mrs. Butler, I came

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to respect the customers
who knew what they wanted.

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The doctors and lawyers
and their worldly wives,

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who had accounts, for
whom buying flowers

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was a regular part of life.

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Spenders.

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People with taste, Ollie said.

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She had no time for the once
a year poinsettia buyers

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who fussed around, wanting
you to pick out the best one.

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She tended them with a frozen
rectitude, barely polite.

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Mrs. Butler, though, also
favoring those with distinction

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as she said, had a
soft spot for a shy

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person who came in blinking at
the orchids, clutching a ten.

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And how could you not
admire the people who knew?

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Who had poise and a
bead on what was what?

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They were our people.

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The whole stage set of
the showroom was for them.

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The greenhouse had the purity
and frank dirt of a farm,

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but the downtown store
was awash in illusion.

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It belonged to the
winners and takers

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who lived in the
zone of carelessness

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that won our admiration.

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The best customers often picked
up a fistful of trimmed azaleas

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from the display
tables and brought them

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to the marble delivery tables
like employees themselves,

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as if they owned the place.

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"Send these off to the people
on my list, will ya Mrs. B?"

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"How would you like
them signed, Dr. Daley?"

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"Oh, Merry Christmas is fine.

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You can sign for me.

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Love on the one to my wife."

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Dr. Ray came bounding in
from the Lowry Medical Arts,

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humming an aria.

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Big opera fan, he was.

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And then bellowed for Ollie as
he approached the marble table.

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"Can you round up a
herd of poinsettias?

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Send them to everybody
I sent to last year.

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They're all still alive,
aren't they Ollie?"

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and they would laugh.

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Ollie and her best customer.

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They'd laugh and agree
that everybody was probably

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still alive.

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He handed her a square
envelope with a little bulge,

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meaning a couple of
bills were folded inside.

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The Christmas tip.

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Ollie and Mrs. Butler never
opened these envelopes

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at the store.

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Never spoke of them, though Mrs.
Butler once said, "They help."

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My father was ashamed of
what the owners paid them.

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"The office staff," he
said, "was even worse.

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I don't know how
Justine manages to eat."

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"How do we manage?"
my mother said.

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Leo the lion, looking
up from her book, always

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ready with her drop of acid.

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My father shrugged his shrug.

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"That company," my
mother said, dumping

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it as usual in the
dustbin of her disgust.

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The floor staff and
the office staff

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had worked there for decades.

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They all lived in apartments,
widows and single ladies,

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who made up the workforce
at the downtown store.

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There wasn't a married
woman in the bunch,

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except for gossipy
Rosette, who worked the PBX

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machine and whose husband
ground lenses around the corner

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at Williams Optical.

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She retired early
with arthritis.

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Served her right.

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She flirted with my father.

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I was glad to see her go.

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All of them took the bus to
work and had two weeks vacation,

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which they spent at
home getting caught up,

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as Mrs. Butler put it.

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No one went anywhere.

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Ever.

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Alone among them,
stylish Ollie somehow

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contrived to take her lunch,
cup of soup, egg salad on white,

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trim the crust,
please, at the Moudry

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Counter across from Frank
Murphy's where after lunch she

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cruised daily for any
couture crumbs that might

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have dropped to a sale table.

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Everyone else brought
a sandwich from home

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and ate in the
basement lunchroom

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by the design room
near the candy dippers

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where a game of
cribbage was always on.

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Even Ollie brought a thermos.

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Coffee adds up, they reminded
newcomers hired for the holiday

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rush who would squander a
good part of an hour's wage,

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morning and afternoon break,
on the burnt coffee at Moudry's

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