When my granddaughter was about five, we went to the movies at some odd hour, maybe 4:30. There were only two other people in the theater, a father and his little daughter. I let Gabi choose the seats, and she sat down directly behind the two others. In this whole empty chasm.
Today I returned to my car in a large parking lot, almost empty with a scattering of cars. I got in, turned the key thinking to pull ahead, and a car slides into the space nose to nose with my car. I look at the empty spaces all around us. I had to back up to pull out.
Is there a clustering gene?
Why, when we go to the movies, are all the aisle seats taken? Everybody has to squeeze past their knees to get in. Most times they have to stand up. Are they all disabled? Do they want to rush out of the theater first? "Two seats on the aisle" were the favored seats at Broadway theaters long ago. I wonder why. You can lean out for a clear view?
What about the thrill when you're on line to check out behind a person who appears to have selected one of everything in the store, and a cashier opens a new lane, and says, "Next." The last on my line slides over, but she says, "No. You," pointing at me. Jackpot!
At the shoe store, a clerk was checking to see whether my size was available at another branch, when a man comes up holding a shoe, and says, "This is on display. Show me where the shoes are." The clerk starts to walk away. Firmly, I address the intruder. "He will help you when he is finished with me," and my clerk returns. Yes! (But they don't have my size.)
At the same shoe store I have on a pair of wonderfully comfortable shoes. I need a nice looking walking shoe, and I'm afraid these look like what they are, black gym shoes. I see a mother and her eleven year old daughter. The daughter has on 3" heels and a joyous look. I say to her, "Maybe next year." She grins. I say, "Now you tell me. I need a shoe dressier than a gym shoe. What do you think?" We look at my feet. The mother starts to answer, but I say I really want her daughter's opinion. The little girl considers, and says Yes, she thinks they are very very nice. The mother agrees. I buy my walking shoes for Paris. They really are black gym shoes. But very very nice.
---Florence
Florence, if you had called and asked my advice about shoes for Paris, "black, nice sneakers", is exactly what I would have said. White sneakers in Europe scream "older American tourist", black once you won't look Parisian, but you can pass for European, and you will be very COMFORTABLE, whichis, I assume, your ultimate goal.
Posted by: Birgitta | March 19, 2008 at 02:25 PM