These ladies are amazing characters. Their plant is a character too!
I think it might be a baby banana plant in which case they would have to have a greenhouse somewhere. You can see a couple other specimen plants in a border along the fence, and a trellis roof just peeking in on the right of the picture. These women are obviously not wealthy, but are gardening enthusiasts.
The ladies themselves, well, I bet there were stories about them all over town. The one in the middle is either the oldest sister or the mother. And she's kind of just back there in the shadows.
The one one the right, just look at that incredible perma-frown! That's her happy take the picture frown.
(We all have an aunt like that, don't we. The one who has no life, but who has ideas about how everyone else's life could be improved and who takes personal offense when we don't follow her dictums and whims. She loudly and constantly voices her disapproval and unhappiness about just about everything and then wonders why no one visits her.) I'll just call her the Wicked Witch of the West for short. I'm TOTALLY just talking about the photo.
Someone should have told her that her hairstyle is the exact wrong one for someone with that huge expanse of a forehead. Also, the enormous bows were for little girls. Wouldn't it be just the worst if she was the school teacher? Anyway, her hair is all neat and tidy as is her dress and apron.
I'm thinking the woman on the left must be the Cinderella of the clan. Her gingham apron is dirty, wrinkled and wet and her hair is unkempt. She was really not ready for this photo.
In my mind the Wicked Witch of the West told her they had to take the picture right then and no they could not wait because can't you see the light will be all wrong in 15 minutes and then we'll have to wait until tomorrow don't be so vain.
I think Cinderella does all the heavy lifting and I'm guessing she just watered the banana tree and washed out the pails that are drying upside down on the fence behind them.
But in the end, it's all about the plant, and the plant does look very impressive.
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i like looking at old pictures. Who knows whats really on their minds. I like the story you wrote about the women, and yes, it is about the plant :)
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