Cornstalks by front porch

Cornstalks by front porch

I went to Taft Farms yesterday because I love to decorate the porch with cornstalks, hokey as it is, and with those jewel-like bundles of red and gold Indian corn. I spotted a bunch of cornstalks leaning against the wall around the side of the building. No price, but I grabbed two bundles and carried them to the register. How much? I asked.

Fifty dollars. Each one, said the young man in an emerald tshirt.

Gimme a break. Where do you think Im from? How much are they?

He looked at the other man behind the counter and they laughed. How much? I said.

Oh, right, thatll be fifteen. Plus the apples.

Fifteen dollars is a lot for cornstalks, I admit, but they are gluten free. And free range. And probably organic and if not organic they were definitely grown in some desirable, non-industrial way.

The question that remains, however, if whether they would really have taken a hundred dollars from some New Yorker? And if there really are people who would pay it?