Overheard on St. John

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

A tourist walks up to a man who is sweeping out his open-air cafe. The tourist asks if there is a bathroom. The cafe owner points across the street to the public facility and says, "It's over there."

"Do I have to pay for the bathroom?"

The cafe owner shakes his head wearily, and as the man trots across the street to use restrooms, he adds ever so seriously, "No, the bathroom is free on Wednesdays."

I sat at the bar waiting (and waiting and waiting) on my cheeseburger. To kill time I began chatting up the young waitress. She told me that she was from the mainland but had lived on the island for five years with her boyfriend. It was beginning to bore her, though, and she was thinking about moving on to some other island. But then she got to talking about snorkeling, fishing, and her much-loved garden. I mentioned the ubiquitous chickens and she told me about the cows that roam into her garden. She said that she has learned to use a sling shot to move them on down the road.

I asked the waitress if St. John would be a good place for me to retire. "Oh, yes!" She said enthusiastically. "If your are ever hungry you can just step outside and kill a chicken!"

St. John is definitely my kind of place!