The Ethiopians Across The Street
In the mid 80's we had moved across the street from our old apartment. We now lived next door to the bar, so instead of having drunks peeing on the side of our house, we frequently woke up to find blood on our front steps. We never washed it off. We just waited for rain.
But I digress. We had some people from Ethiopia move into the 4 family across the street from us. These were the oddest people I had ever seen. They put a sofa out on their front lawn.
Not some cool wicker outdoor sofa -a real, live, meant-to-be-inside sofa. It was upholstered in blue fabric with little flowers on it. At first, we figured someone had thrown it out, and they were waiting for bulk-trash pick up day. Nope. That thing sat out there all winter long. When the weather warmed up, they would sit on the sofa and chat with each other. I kept expecting the sofa to just fall apart, considering the weather extremes St. Louis is subjected to. It actually did sort of fall apart, after their kids used it as a sled one winter. The next spring they had acquired a beige sofa to put next to the blue one. We started making bets on how long it would be before they had a whole living room out there.