Conversation

Although all most of my weekend was spent working, I broke away for a few diversions, one of which was a surprise 70th birthday party for a neighbor, Miss Phyllis.

A patchwork quilt of characters was in attendance.  There were many Come Heres, a couple of whom arrived by boat.  There were several From Heres, including the mother of a high school friend. And last but not least there were a few neighbors.  Neighbors who are from here.

The Come Heres struck up charming conversations with anyone who made eye contact.  They spoke about things like home renovations and an overabundance of tart cherries, which make excellent pies, in case anyone should want to stop by and please help themselves to some.

The From Heres carved off their own niche and talked about things like the tornado, and how lucky we were to have been spared.  We talked about gardening and tomatoes and which types of peppers we'd recently planted. My friend's mother and I talked at length about the book I'm working on.  She enjoyed pondering my questions about what Main Street looked like decades ago, and I enjoyed listening to her reminisce.

It was nice talking with the neighbors too. In case I haven't mentioned it before, we're a very eclectic, eccentric, quirky crazy fun-loving bunch around here. Below is an excerpt from a conversation which perhaps illustrates this.

Chesapeake Bay Woman to Neighbor Lady She Has Known Her Entire Life:  "Hey there, your hair is pretty, it's getting so long."

Neighbor Lady:  "Yeeeah.  I've cut it off three times now for Locks of Love. I only cut my bangs now and let the rest grow out."

CBW:  "That's wonderful!  It really grows quickly, I can't believe how long it's grown." (CBW is repetitive and redundant not only in her blog posts but also in her conversations.)

Neighbor Lady, as serious as a heart attack:  "Oh yeah, it's long enough that I can use it for dental floss again."

CBW:  [Insert the sounds of a very blank stare followed by a head cocking to one side and a blink in slow motion.  Add the sound of a brow slowly furrowing. Then add a second and third blink in rapid succession.  Toss in the sound of fingers going to one's chin before they involuntarily move to cover one's mouth. Then add whatever sound is made when a person is trying to process information that she very much was not expecting, all the while trying to hush internal voices and other sounds that are raucous in nature and rather inappropriate for the particular situation at hand.  In  short, there was the very long sound of a pregnant pause coming from the general direction of CBW.]

Neighbor Lady, with a nervous laugh:  "Y'all do that, don't you?"

CBW, who recognizes her inability to focus can be a strength:  "How about that tornado?  Do you have any tomatoes in the ground yet?"