THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS

Guess you know how a smell can take you back in time without permission?

I breathed in the perfume of these peaches as I was passing by this afternoon & suddenly I was back in 1968 in the back of a truck transporting peaches....

 I was hitch-hiking with a girlfriend from Algeciras to Paris. It was at night & the driver prepared us a place to sleep amongst crates & crates of peaches - the perfume was sublime.

Halfway between Malaga & Valencia he stopped, woke us up & treated us to enormous tuna & salad sandwiches.

This guy spoke minimal English & we the same sort of Spanish - in Valencia we waved goodbye.

Every time I smell peaches en masse, kindness comes out to bite me!