the Boys and the Girls

 

Lounging in the Girls' yard, and ... "would you like to go in front of me?"

This blob is dedicated to all my Emerson friends in Boca, with whom we had breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Or gave us excellent suggestions  about activities which we pretty much ignored. Except in the case of “the Girls strawberry patch”  and “The Boys,” (I guess it's a farmers market), which I would call a free for all.  (Apparently this was a family with many kids who needed to serve the public.)

                         A shopper dashing thru the line, chaos in the Produce section 

and the Girls' vintage '51 Oldsmobile

 And why, you might ask, is it a free for all?  The people who shop there use both their cars and their shopping baskets, as weapons.  Visiting South Florida, like visiting  Palm Springs, is always an adventure.  (If you live in the East those people who want to get away from winter weather go to Florida, and if you live in the West you go to Palm Springs.) I know, one is a state and the other a city, and although they have some things in common, the character of the places is totally different. Let's use “The Boys” (TB) as an example.  It is unimaginable to think that the people in Palm Springs would ever behave like the people who shop at TB.

A little about the store. It is a mid-sized market with great fresh produce, a first rate bakery, meat and fish (I’m assuming so, because there wasn’t a chance we were going to get close), and every food product ever sold in this country or around the world.  No Joke.  There were things I saw there I had seen in the souks in Morocco, the market in China, and the border towns in Mexico.   It was fascinating and equally chaotic.  Everyone wants to be first. It doesn't matter what, or where first, just first. First to park, first in line, first to select a vegetable, just First.

Everyone knows there has to be a second, even a third.  But not these people. I doubt that anyone in that store suffered through the depression. But they must have heard stories and imagined it.  Personally, and I mean this in the nicest possible way, many of these folks are certifiably nuts.  There are a few people who laughed about other shoppers hitting them with a cart, or pushing their way into the front. But these folks have experience, they know what to expect.  We did not. Finally, thankfully, we finished walking through the people-maze and got into the check out line.

There was a guy in back of us had a very few items and I told him to go ahead. He asked me to repeat myself 3 times. “No really,” I said. “Get in front of me. It will probably never happen to you again, so go for it.”  He thanked me and suggested we visit “The Girls”, on the next block.

 

the chill factor at the Girls

the "cawing" never stops...

We drove instead  of walking, because we wanted to live. If you have ever driven in South Florida, you know why. We decided to take his advice.

It was peaceful and pleasant.  Just like in real life, the Boys was terrifying and the Girls was delightful. This was some family!  There were exotic multi-hued birds singing, beautiful parrots of all shapes and colors. There were farm animals, turtles,  and giant gold fish.  Although they didn't have strawberries to pick, they did have tomatoes and starfruit.  The only noise was the parrots talking, and little children laughing.

They were both places I would encourage everyone to experience at least once. Be sure to get a key-lime milk shake at the Girls. In addition, across the street is  Brooklyn Water-Bagels. The bagels are great. The staff knows what they need to do when you ask them to ‘scoop.’ The iced coffee is amazing (hint: the ice cubes themselves are made from coffee!)  and the owner is charming.  One caveat, however:  all the customers want to be First. I didn't mind being 3rd. We’re just sayin’… Iris