The perennial snack...

Vignette No 10
The perennial snack

It is hard to tell the gender of the person flagging traffic on the road, the choice of sunglasses and the refined nose holding them in place suggests that the person under the heavy construction clothes and bright colored overcoats is a woman. As I slow down next to her, I notice that next to her work boots lays a big lunch box and a bag of snacks. It is about 9AM and she is holding a stop sign in one hand and a snack in the other. I can see now that she is chewing as she tries to talk to the radio hanging from her shoulder. Her radio squawks something that prompts her to stop chewing and flip the stop sign to “Slow” and she motions me to move on.

About an hour after lunch time, I drive through the same busy “under repair” intersection again, and I meet the same flagger lady. This time, she is snaking and chewing something bigger, she is struggling to keep the “Stop” sign straight as she maneuvers the snacks from the bag in the floor to her mouth.

A couple of hours later, I drive by that spot again, and the snaking is still in full swing. All around the spot where she has been directing traffic all day, you can see crumbs delineating the dietary history of her day...and I start to realize that the clothing for this job along with her perennial snacking is quite fortunate.