October 18, 2026
A favorite saying we have in our home is: “You cannot make this stuff up!” By that, we mean that real life stories are often unbelievable. Here is one from our travels…
Dave and I were visiting Victoria, British Columbia to attend Eric’s graduation from photography school. We walked downtown, bought some fruit and muffins, and sat on a bench to enjoy this breakfast outdoors.
An older man with a cup of Tim Hortons coffee walked by. “Excuse me sir,” I said. “Could you please tell us where that coffee shop is?” He told us and then asked why we were visiting Victoria.
We explained and asked him (“Joe”) about his situation. Joe said that he had a condo in this city but still worked in Alberta. He explained that his job was in the agriculture sector.
The conversation turned to seasonal fruits and vegetables and how we have come to expect produce anytime of the year because it can be shipped in from warmer climates.
I said: “My mother was the youngest of 5 children and the orange they each got in their Christmas stocking was considered a once-in-the-winter special treat. Their main holiday candy treat was an unwrapped maple-leaf-shaped sugar candy. In order to discourage the other siblings from tasting their treat, each of them would - in full view of their siblings - generously lick their own candy all over.”
We laughed and I commented on the possessiveness of children. Joe said, “It’s not just children. I am usually in the field for my job, but one day I dropped in at the office and saw a full box of donuts in the staff area. I opened the box and reached for one of the Boston cream donuts.
Other staff said ‘Stop! That’s Bob’s!’ And they explained that each Friday when the donuts arrive, Bob - in full view of the other staff - lifts the two Boston cream treats out of the box and licks them all over. Then he returns them to the box until he is ready to eat them. Apparently Bob felt that spit-marking his treat territory would assure that no other staff would eat his favorite snack.
This annoyed me no end, so - while they watched - I stood and ate both of Bob’s donuts!”
I guess he felt that ingesting Bob’s dried saliva was worth the “victory” over Bob’s selfishness.
