Little Shop of Flowers

About the Book

Little Shop of Flowers has nothing to do with flowers. It’s about a “bouquet”of dedicated ladies, given flowery names, who volunteer at the Thrift Shop. The colorful Rosie Sharoni, an Italian lady with lots of spunk, introduces our storyteller, Mari Gold, to the Thrift Shop, which she takes to like a geranium to a clay pot. The chairwoman, Dora Bell, deals with tremors and asthma, but doesn’t let these things get in the way of her coming up with bright ideas to improve the shop’s operation. Scarlet Sage, the knowledgeable assistant, also refuses to let various health problems keep her from staying at her post until all the donations are priced. Sweet Alyssa tirelessly organizes stacks of donated books, and Lu Pine looks up collectibles on the internet. Then there’s Hosta LaSeeya, who gets her leaves in a flutter when volunteers, looking to help, mess with her clothes department. She and Mari Gold become friends, despite their difference of opinion about what will sell and what goes in the trash. Finally, Dandy Lyon breezes in like a breath of fresh air, and Mari Gold thinks she may have found her successor. The book is a series of stories about retired or widowed ladies who volunteer their free time to perform a good deed for the community. And, it’s stories about frequent visitors who interact with the them — people like Thelma and Louise, Spiro, the joke-telling priest, Jack Backpack, who warns about the thieves and hooligans “out there,” Tricky Dick, who scams little 90-year old Violet, Big Mike, the charmer always looking for a bargain, and Eddie, the Trivia Guy, who entertains the ladies with all sorts of questions. It isn’t like any other kind of shop where people pick up what they need, pay for it and leave. Customers get involved in other’s conversations, dicker over prices, vent about life, or just hang out. Some bring humor, some sadness. And some have to be asked not to come back. Little Shop of Flowers hopefully will make the reader laugh. It is really just a wedge or two in the pie of life—people who need to feel like they’re doing something useful, and people who are simply looking for a bargain or just need a place to go or someone to talk to.

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