This is actually based on a real person, a flower lady who used to habit the Greenwich Village coffee houses at which Phil and his buddies played. She never spoke a word to anyone - just walked in to a place like the Gaslight and went from table to table selling her flowers. It was pretty typical of the folkniks at the time to snicker at her, and I think this was a reaction by Phil to that experience, possibly a couple of years after the fact (written in the second half of 1965).
Suze Rotolo mentions her in her memoir, A Freewheelin' Time.
This is actually based on a real person, a flower lady who used to habit the Greenwich Village coffee houses at which Phil and his buddies played. She never spoke a word to anyone - just walked in to a place like the Gaslight and went from table to table selling her flowers. It was pretty typical of the folkniks at the time to snicker at her, and I think this was a reaction by Phil to that experience, possibly a couple of years after the fact (written in the second half of 1965).
Suze Rotolo mentions her in her memoir, A Freewheelin' Time.