Well, all right, while we are getting far afield...
As a callow youth, I worked in the produce dept. of a family-owned south
St. Louis grocery store. The sons of the family kept the patriarch out of
their hair by letting him run a produce stand in an open porch-like
arrangement on the rear of the store. At night, we lowered canvas
curtains and laced them together with cord. One summer, the "old man" and
I were selling watermelons, and began lacing the curtains to shut down for
the night. I asked why we bothered, since anyone with a pocket knife
could get in. The old man said, "We're keeping the honest thieves out,
Ray. We tried leaving it open, and the losses were terrible. With these
curtains, we lose almost nothing."
Of course, that was 37 years ago.
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