Monday, May 16, 2011

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?"



11 comments:

Kay L. Davies said...

Dental floss! I love it!
— K

Kay, Alberta, Canada
An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel

Maria_NJ said...

Oh Lawd, I hope she was pulling your leg...She must have really strong hair or teeth that have some space in between. All's I have to say is OMGOSH!!!hahahaha

Mrs F with 4 said...

Umm, how do I confess that I've flossed with my hair? Only in an emergency, and I pull the strand out first. I mean, flossing while it was still attached would just be... odd... wouldn't it?

Anonymous said...

Sorry I missed it! I'm sure it was a hoot. I would never think of using my hair for dental floss, but I can just imagine the conversation!

-Middle Sis

abb said...

Amazing you didn't say ewwwwwwwwwwww! That's too funny.

Daryl said...

SNORT ..

Bethie said...

Love it!

deborah said...

wv: tiohec wha-tiohec I'll try it right now:)

growing wild on waverly lane said...

Qwaaaah! I thought I heard that when having the cherries exchange, but thought I must be confused.

Comes to mind this old song:

Old man Mose was a fine old man
Washed his face in the frying pan
Dried his face with the horse's tail
And cleaned his teeth with his big toe nail

Altogether unsanitary. Plus having a hair show up in your teeth could imply things you don't deserve.

Mental P Mama said...

[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.

I can so see this!

Chesapeake Bay Woman said...

Kay - One of our other neighbors had to walk away. It was that funny.

Maria - She was very serious. When you win the Blog Cabin I will make sure you are introduced to the local contingent, you will not believe our cast of characters. A rip-roaring reality TV show based on these characters would be wildly successful, mostly because you cannot possibly make up the stuff that happens around here and nobody would believe it without seeing it for themselves.

Mrs. F - she was talking about flossing with it *still attached* in this instance, but she gave another example of, well, I'll save that story for another time.

Middle Sis - You would have died laughing, I just know it. This was "Mooch" aka Miss Curly doing all this dental floss talk, but of course you knew that...

TSA-There were so many things I wanted to say, and follow up questions I had...I'llsave them for the neighborhood Christmas party.

Daryl, Bethie and Deborah - Indeed!

Wild on Waverly(CB Mumma)- I knew you were lingering there in the background but wasn't sure if it was you or Beverly who actually heard it come from Mooch's mouth. Qwaaa!

MPM-It was a time goin' on around here that evening.