HOW COULD THEY?

Driving along Wildes District Road, the skinny serpentine connector between Kennebunkport and Cape Porpoise, a wood-framed stand stacked with colorful summer flowers catches the eye. Audi Qs, Subaru Outbacks and bikers sporting black lycra zip-tops screech to a stop. The driver hops out (or off) to admire, consider the choice, then happily drive off with a lush bouquet of picked-that-morning zinnias, coneflowers and dahlias. 

 Regan, the gal who owns that stand, is a treasured friend. She works harder than anyone I know, seating hungry and not-always-patient tourists at bustling Alisson’s Restaurant in Dock Square. Other days she cleans houses, bringing home her clients’ wrinkled linen slacks to iron. In her “spare” time, Regan waters and weeds an overflowing home vegetable garden, donating the surplus to local food pantries. 

When I stopped to buy a small bouquet at Regan’s stand last week, I noticed that the “cash register” — a 14”x14” wooden box — featured a padlock. Hmmm, I thought.  That’s new. Transactions have always been on the “honor system,” with customers placing a $10 or $20 bill in the box. 

“I was robbed,” she told me. Apparently, the honor system Regan has relied on since she set up her stand years ago fizzled. Last week when she walked out to close the stand for the night, she discovered that the cash box was empty. Someone had helped themselves to all her day’s earnings. 

Keep in mind: her prices are a bargain — $10 and $20 for rainbow-hued arrangements that last for days. And, when you purchase posies from Regan’s stand, the flowers go home in a free vase. For miniature bouquets, 4” high, she even supplies small plastic bags to protect car seats from possible water damage.

If you chance to catch Regan while she’s stacking more bouquets on the shelves, she happily discusses her gardens — she’s not only quite knowledgable about horticulture, she’s a class act who believes, as did Emerson, that “the Earth laughs in flowers.”

So who took the money? “If it was someone who needed it to buy food,” Regan told me, “I’d understand.”

Not me. I’m irate. 

With all the crappola happening in the world today, whimsical and nostalgic flower stands like Regan’s remind me that our earth is still a joyful beautiful place. Azure hydrangeas in a glass vase sitting on my living room coffee table fill me joy. Whoever stole Regan’s hard-earned money robbed not only her but all of us who treasure the concept and reality of an “honor system” vegetable or flower stand.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the first time it’s happened to Regan. A few years ago, someone stole money out of her cash box. But she brushed it off thinking it was a one-time happening. Apparently not.

As Solomon said in Ecclesiastes: “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.” In other words, history repeats itself.  Alas, so does human nature.