Quite a rough-at-the-edges, hardworking man who has really battled most of his life, Solly emerges has one of the nicest natures I have yet to encounter. Of course, I don’t live with the man, so I shall never really know all of him. But the little bit I do know, endears him to me.
I don’t see him often, but the other night landed in his lounge with his ‘family’, after surviving a grueling five days of car trouble. We were talking about food, narrowed our natter to soups, and finally landed on butternut soup (one of my personal favourites) at which point everyone piped up in unison and said, “Except for Solly!” When I asked, “Why?” they giggled and shared that Solly doesn’t touch orange vegetables. That even if he enjoys gem squash, as long as it is yellow; if it is even slightly orange he’ll give it a miss. That he claims to be allergic to orange!
“It’s true!” he proclaimed. “You know that time when you were young, and forced on several occasions to eat certain foods you couldn’t stand, food that activated your gag reflex, food that made you want to vomit, screwed up your face something awful, raised your blood pressure and your temperature, and made a lump in your throat so big that you could almost not breathe and felt like you were going to die?! Well, I know I am allergic to orange. As soon as I see it, my throat swells and closes up. No one will force me to eat it ever again!”
That's when you know the little Solly is still very much a part of the big Solly...
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