these are the people in your neighbourhood...

i really like where i live. while it is "trendy" and expensive, i am quite happy with my choice to live in kitsilano.

the obvious aside, that i live next to the ocean in an old neighbourhood with big, old trees, i enjoy the fact that families go out for walks together, that i found a willow tree next to the ocean, that people walk to the grocery store, that the buses will be full on a friday night, that independent coffee shops and bookstores outnumber the chain stores, people take a bike ride for enjoyment, that i have the salty smell of sea in my nose...

but two of my favourite things are this: on the corner of 4th and macdonald, someone very mysterious puts out free things every day. a few weeks ago there was an entertainment unit complete with knick knacks. last week, there was a collection of comforters and pillows, over the weekend, a wedding dress hung on the fence with a collection of sneakers lined up underneath, and today, a kitchen sink. and people take them, because the stuff is always gone at the end of the day. 

i have been taking photos of them with my phone and if i can ever figure out how to get them off my phone and on a computer, i will.

but this early spring evening, a woman working in the garden made my day. i was walking along laden with grocery bags, and an old woman starts talking to me 

"wait!! wait! i need to tell you something!" 
she literally comes running from her garden to her front gate and starts looking at my grocery bags. i thought i had food falling out of them or something.

and here is what she tells me (in her exact words)

"so, someone asked, 
'where do moose come from?' 
and the other person said from moosejaw! 
and then the person said 'where do cows come from?' 
why from cowgary of course!"
(interjection of 'oh, now that one's funny isn't it)
but listen to this - a foreigner in australia asked one of those native folks 
'what are those things jumping around?'
and since the native person, you know, they didn't speak any english or anything, i mean why should they, said
'kangaroo - i don't know' (pregnant pause after this)
isn't that funny! kangaroo means i don't know in that native tongue!!
what is that native tongue anyway? i think in new zealand it is maori, is that right? well, gee i just don't know what it is in australia.
but isn't that cute. it is so great to tell children!! 

(at this point, i thought she meant that i was the child and she was telling me the joke)

and she continues " so go, tell a child that. isn't it precious! oh, they just love it! kangaroo - i don't know" i've read it in at least 4 different places, that kangaroo means that. oohh, children just love it...

i thanked the woman profusely and promised to tell children her joke. 
and i walked away smiling..