June 7, 2026

By Arthur H. Gunther III

thecolumnrule.com

The Irish are said to put aside a biscuit for “Mary, up the road,” because there is always a Mary up the road. So it is with certain people in many of our lives.

Mary, up the road is an occasional drop-by. Not always expected, so prepared you must be. She arrives, the kettle’s put on, the biscuit retrieved and conversation begins. Subject, duration both relative to the visit. Yet it is always quick, part of routine when it is that, for Mary might not come for weeks at a time. The biscuit must be ready.

The benefit for both the visitor and the host is whenever Mary comes. It isn’t talk about the weather, though that usually happens. No, it’s memories of family or village or the new gossip. It is the talking of two people, the listening too as the tea is sipped and the biscuit eaten. Then Mary leaves, goes down the road to her particular routine while the biscuit-giver resumes life.

Now you don’t have to be Irish to host a Mary. The occasional meet-up with a friend or neighbor, whether in home, or over a fence or however is common to us all.

For example, I share a bit of routine with a friend, once a fellow volunteer who does not drive. About my age, every week I chauffeur her to a supermarket, wait in my truck day-dreaming for about 45 minutes and then take her home.

We have a conversation that is mostly catch-up: “How’s the week been?” “Anything new?” No words of great importance except that our quick moment is a re-plugging-in of humanity. This is not about any emotion beyond that. Just a visit with “Mary,” though that is not her name.

Nor is tea shared, and I don’t know if she buys biscuits in the supermarket.

But you get the point.

The writer is a retired newspaperman.

-30-