Rose Quote #838

Quote from Rose in Cheaters

Rose: The reason these confidence men don't get caught is because people are embarrassed to come forward and admit they were conned.
Blanche: I'm sorry, Rose. I just can't.
Rose: Well, perhaps this little story might make you change your mind. Back in St. Olaf there was a shepherd boy who tended his flock on the hill above the town. A wolf kept coming down and stealing his sheep, but the boy never caught him doing it. Because he never saw it happening, he became known around St. Olaf as the boy who didn't cry wolf. Anyway, one day the townspeople heard the boy on the hill yelling, "Wolf, Wolf. " Well, they all figured, if the boy never cried wolf when the wolf was there, if he yelled wolf now, it stood to reason the wolf wasn't there.
Sophia: Boy, nothing gets by you people.
Rose: Damn straight. It was a bear. A huge, ferocious, grizzly bear.
Blanche: What happened to the boy?
Rose: He became known as the boy who cried continuously.

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Features in the collection: Tales of St. Olaf.

‘Tales of St. Olaf’

Quote from Rose in Dorothy's New Friend

Rose: I remember when I was a little girl back in St. Olaf. There was this old lady who lived up the street. She never smiled. I mean, she always looked angry. The kids said she'd kill anyone who even stepped on her property. We called her Mean Old Lady Higgenlooper.
Blanche: Yeah, kids can be pretty cruel.
Rose: No. That was her name. Mean Old Lady Higgenlooper. She had it changed legally 'cause everybody called her that anyway.
Blanche: Then how come your name isn't Big Dummy?
Rose: Well, there were already three other people in town with that name. But that's beside the point. One day I got up the courage to go up to Mean Old Lady Higgenlooper and ask her why she always frowned. Well, she had been born with no smiling muscles. I pointed out that a frown is just a smile turned upside down. So from then on, whenever I'd go by, she'd stand on her head and wave.

Quote from Rose in Older and Wiser

Rose: Well, it wasn't unnatural in St. Olaf. We not only took care of our old people, we revered them, honored them, put them on a pedestal. 'Course, that's how we got to be the broken hip capital of the Midwest.

 ‘Cheaters’ Quotes

Quote from Sophia

Dorothy: Ma, what do you think I should do?
Sophia: No one can help you with that decision, Dorothy. I can't tell you what to do. I mean, I won't be around forever. I'd like to know there was someone here to love you and take care of you like you take care of me. Maybe he could give you a bigger allowance. I mean, it's nice now and then to buy something that's not generic. You know what I'm saying, Dorothy?
Dorothy: Yes, Ma. And it's nice, you saying you love me and you care.
Sophia: No. I'm saying buy genuine Q-Tips. If I'm gonna put a stick in my ear, I'd like a little cotton at the end.

Quote from Sophia

Dorothy: Look, I'm not proud of what I did, but it didn't seem so bad at the time. He was trapped in a bad marriage.
Sophia: There's no such thing as being trapped in a marriage. In this country you can get divorced. In Sicily there was no divorce. If you wanted to end a marriage, you had to resort to the lupara.
Rose: Is that some kind of legal loophole?
Sophia: It's some kind of sawed-off shotgun.

Quote from Rose

Rose: That was no nun. I work for a consumer protection show. We've been warning people about this for months. Once these scamsters have your money in an envelope, they make a switch and you wind up with worthless paper. They prey on the old and the gullible.
Blanche: Are you calling me gullible?
Rose: No.