Lonely Cucumber

It's amazing what you see by the side of the road next to the center guard rails when you are stuck in traffic and crawling along. Whenever I am stuck in traffic I use my time wisely, I scope out what has been discarded in the wasteland that is the highway median. Things get stuck to the rail divider or washed into debris piles by torrential rains that flood their way to the nearest drain. I have seen things such as hats sticking out of drains, a curled up skeleton by an overpass, pieces of tire, front bumpers, hub caps, and general trash. However, most of these things are normal sights along the interstate. The other week I saw something unusual and completely unexpected.

As I was crawling along I-40, on the inner shoulder heading east, was a lovely English cucumber. It was sitting by itself on the pavement, whole and fresh looking. It made me want to reach out and pick it up as if the median were a farmer's market stall. Where did the cucumber come from? Why was it not squashed or damaged in some way? Why did it look so delicious sitting on a filthy highway shoulder?

Note, I did not take this picture but found that there have been
other cucumbers on the road in Sheffield, UK.
"Cucumber on the road" - borrowed from Spiritus Ex Machina on Flickr

Given the chance, I probably would have picked it up and taken it home. Had it proved edible, I would have washed it off and eaten it raw with a little salt. Yes, I know I'm odd, but why let a lovely veggie or fruit (thinking back to the roadside grapefruit) go to waste? People are starving all over the world! I would hate to laugh in their faces with my excess by letting something rot on the side of the road that I could have eaten.

However, traffic picked up as I drove past it and it was left behind. I watched is slide out of my side-view mirror and lamented having to leave it there. Other than the treat of having a reclaimed cucumber to munch on later, it would have been fun to see people's faces as I left my car to pick it up. I would like to have done that and heard what they were thinking as they saw me. That would have been priceless.