Concrete Rose

Neighboring Pasadena is known as the rose city, but this mysterious South Pasadena Rose fascinates me. I step over her name every time I take a walk in my neighborhood and with each crossing I wonder who she was and when she made this defiant mark in the sidewalk cement. I think names written in concrete are wonderful things – and for whatever reason, South Pasadena sidewalks have a lot of them. Unlike cemetery markers – so final, so respectful, so literal – these signatures are a testament to a city’s playful, chest-thumping whimsy. Whoever Rose is or was, one day she leaned down, picked up a stick and left this statement that she was here, a part of this place. Right on, Rose! The next time I see a patch of wet cement, I’ll be hard pressed not to do the same thing.