(no subject)

When driving home from work yesterday I came to a stretch of road where high noise-insulating walls keep the traffic noise off the residents. And exactly at this place, next to hundreds of cars thundering past, some women were harvesting berries, raspberries or blackberries, I have no clue. What I know is that no one should harvest those berries growing at the roadside, contaminated by automobile exhaust, and much less by using the leg-up to get to the highest vines, because odds are that you´ll end up under the wheels of a car should this stunt go wrong. And you are not supposed to take your children with you, those happily frolicking around on the other side of the road, where only a narrow grass verge separates pavement from road, especially so if there is no one keeping a close watch which might prove useful when the oldest of the children is no more than six. I for one was in a state of shock when two of the boys crossed over without even looking out for traffic. Miraculously no harm was done, though the women where shaking their fist at the driver who had managed to stop his car by standing on the brakes. This is a mad world, I realised, because 300 metres to the left, at the edge of a wood, those women could have found berries sans toxins, or they might go to the close-by supermarket which sells berries at cut-rate prices. In the driver´s stead I´d have called the police, to bring a stop to this dangerous harvesting! Too many accidents where children are involved happen because we do not speak up if needed, myself included!