Years ago, I was helping the son of a neighbor get rid of her extensive potted cactus collection. Marilynn Vilas and I borrowed Nancy Crosby’s pickup so we could take the plants over to the Arboretum nursery. We had to use a dolly to move one large opuntia plant. We couldn’t get the tailgate closed, but we thought the weight of the plant and dolly would keep everything in place.

Everything was fine as we drove along Fifth Street until we hit a dip around A Street. The cactus shot out the back, on its dolly. Traffic behind us luckily was able to screech to a halt. A young man ran up to help us, and we did get to the nursery, cracking jokes about Lucy and Ethel all the way.