Humans may find Lead Belly’s wise advice rather easier to sing than to adopt, but a well-loved local “street cat” exemplifies the notion… most especially when the sun has suitably warmed her favourite footstep.
I happened to take the photo at 5.05 pm on 03 July 2020, but this particular “shining moment” is an oft-recurring one.
Mischka the cat apparently does have a home to go to, but she generally prefers to spend the middle part of the day in a local cafe.
Currently, the cafe closes early in the afternoon.
If the winter sun then shines on, the cafe’s step become warm and vacant, until Mischka occupies it, which she generally does on the latter part of any temperate afternoon.
Many locals – from homeward-bound school students to ambling retirees – pause to say hello, or just to watch the neighbourhood’s most relaxed resident.
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Huddie William Ledbetter (1888-1949), known as Lead Belly, apparently hoped that this post’s song would be adopted by road safety authorities.
My favourite version is Happy Traum’s, as titlepiece of his 1975 album:
(Happy is singer and guitarist, with Patrick Alger on mandolin)
This is the author’s 1948 recording, on which he explained the song before he performed it: