SEVERAL PHOTOS IN SEARCH OF A STORY, SUNG TO THE TUNE OF “GET ME TO THE CHURCH/STATION ON TIME"
After visiting from Rome where she has lived for more than five decades, our dear friend S was ready to catch the train home. She had been raised in Chicago during a period when girls were supposed to be PPP--that is, Perky, Pretty, and Pleasing. Part of the permanent move to Italy was to say "BASTA!" to all that. As a former Midwestern baby boomer, I could definitely relate to the triple P expectations S describes, but she has added a fourth P that leaves me in the dust:Punctuality. So when Jim said we would leave our middle-of-nowhere home (on the worst road you have ever seen) at 10:30 for her 11:20 train, S was anxiously skeptical. Jim prides himself on being a the-glass-is-half-full kind of guy, and his estimate of the half-hour trip to the station included a quick stop at Lidl to buy S a talking scale to go with the new 2-day-per-week fasting diet we are all trying. But former PPP and now PPPP girl S would have none of it...