I was walking down Branch Street in San Luis Obispo the other day and passed a house that had an apricot tree with overarching branches loaded with fruit growing in the front lawn. †The tree had dropped many apricots on the sidewalk and I had to step carefully not to soil my shoes on the rotting fruit.

Also in the front lawn was a sign that read in summary: “Do not take any fruit and do not ask the owners if you can have any, because you can not.”

It is a sad state of affairs when people are so possessive of something that they would rather see it go to waste than share; a trend that sadly is becoming more prevalent in our closed-minded material society.

To the owners of this tree I say: If you want to keep your fruit to yourself, fine, just clean up the damn sidewalk.