Commentary by Donna Monday
Drive by Sixth and Sycamore Streets in the Village someday and take a look at the stop sign on the southwest corner.
Looks like a normal stop sign, doesn’t it? Well, today it is, but that wasn’t always the case. Years ago the stop sign “belonged” to Flossie Pedersen. At least, she thought it did. Flossie lived at the house on that corner. She was an elderly widow and was one of Zionsville’s true characters. She and her kind (old, artistic, intelligent and informed) are a part of why I loved this town and wanted to rear my children here.
Flossie and her stop sign had a couple of run-ins with town officials. Frequently, when a person has to appear before the town board over a stop sign incident, the “incident” involves alcohol, or at least a traffic infringement.
Not so with Flossie’s “incidents.” You might say they involved decorating. That’s right, decorating. Summer decorating and winter decorating.
In the spring, Flossie planted a morning glory at the base of the stop sign. Flossie had a green thumb, and the morning glory did what morning glories are supposed to do. It grew and it climbed. And it grew and it climbed some more.
It grew and climbed so much, in fact, that it completely covered the red stop sign, which was resplendent in blue morning glories.
Town officials deemed this unsafe; so they and the 80-something-year-old Flossie had their say at town hall.
Flossie won the battle, and octagon-red gave way to morning- glory blue. Round one to Flossie.
Round two came at Christmas time. Flossie decided to decorate her stop sign once more.
Her decorations were charming with the usual red and green bangles, boughs, and bows. Which, of course, made the stop sign very festive. Unfortunately, town officials found it not as charming and festive as hazardous.
Again, they and Flossie did battle, and again the artistic widow won. Motorists, who had learned to stop at the morning glory vine, now learned to stop at the big red bow.
I miss Flossie. I really do. I hope to live as long as she. And if I do, I’d like to be like Flossie in my old age. I’d like to be just eccentric enough to make the kind of difference that makes people smile.
Even we grandmas need role models, and Flossie was a good one.
