My Father-In-Law is an Italian immigrant and he takes his gardening and fruit trees pretty seriously. A few years ago he had a bunch of squirrels up in his pear tree eating some and knocking a bunch down. He went after them with a pellet gun which the city he lives in doesn’t allow. A few days later my brother in law was walking down the street and a police car rolled up next to him with the window down. The officer says, “Angelo, we’ve had a complaint that your father’s been shooting at squirrels out his window.”
By brother in law looks him square and says, “that’s a lie. He was standing right under the tree shooting at them.”
The officer said, “well you have to tell him to stop!” Angelo said, “I’m not telling him, you go tell him.”
No dice, the cop chickened out.
I’m right there with you brother,
Both sets of my grandparents were
Sicilian immigrants
And my grandfather’s were exactly the same, very passionate about their gardens,grapes, and fruit trees , squirrels or any other varmits were never tolerated
Your story brought back great memories of a couple of fine men
Ciao