"Honey, do you have a steady?"

A recent photo shoot brought me into Dickie's House of Flowers. I live in a fairly rural area, so I take what I can get when it comes to shopping. And I was actually excited that the town I drive through had a flower shop--a town filled with stores with signs for gun and fish licenses for sale posted in many of the windows. My first step into the shop and I noticed that the majority of Dickie's House of Flowers business was for funerals. Plastic flowers on stands filled the lobby. I knew there had to be a real flower somewhere in the shop. As I turned the corner, I wouldn't say shock was what I felt, but definitely surprise. The green rag carpet and green couch with yellow flowers was straight out of the 60's. It looked like it hadn't been vacuumed since installation. Perched on the couch was an elderly lady, talking to another customer. I didn't realize that she was actually selling something to him--Southerners don't like to get right down to business. They have to ease their way into most things they do. So, I sat down next to Gladys, an interesting woman as I soon came to find out, and began asking about flowers. She drug herself off the couch, helped the young gent purchase a yellow rose with distracting red bow and then we got down to business. No less than 25 minutes later I left her shop. For some reason, if I have enough patience, I enjoy seeing just how much information I can get out of people about their lives. Gladys attends a Baptist church in Walhalla, is 72, and asked the best question I've been asked in a while: "Honey, do you have a steady?" " I sure do, Ms. Gladys," I responded. I took my four purple flowers I bought for half price and left with a smile. Gladys had made my day.