4:28 p.m. - 2005-07-13
More public adventures
Thanks Ricky for helping me become a �Statistic�. That was very interesting. Everyone else - check it out � and spread the word!
My mom met us at the door as we wearily exited the van. I was struck by how frail she looked. This was not the woman who raised me. This was not the person that I�d had a love hate relationship with all my life. This was not the monster that I had once envisioned, who had allowed such chaos to reign in my youth. This was not the woman who had held me to her breast and suckled me as a baby. No � this was a mere shadow of that once youthful woman. Now with pure white gossamer hair, skin as soft as a baby but seemingly more than her tiny frame could carry.
My heart did a leap, and I was glad we�d come.
Tuesday morning we arose none the more refreshed, but to a bright and promising day. I immediately noticed a familiar phenomena - I was back in the house and town that I was a teenager in and I felt like a teenager all over again. With the small exception that I never woke up with a guy in my bed when I lived here � AND � this room didn�t look anything like the one I remembered.
Is it just me? Or when a person visits the town they grew up in (but haven�t visited in a while) that regardless of how old you really are � those passed years are but a blink, and you feel like that teen again? Is it just me, I ask you? I noticed, when we went downtown later, that time really seemed to have stood still. It�s been 25 years since I lived in this town � yet everything is so familiar. Oh, a few of the stores have changed, they�ve built a new high school, and there�s a brand new housing development behind the rodeo grounds � but other than that its exactly the same . . . only different.
While we were out I would see a small group of teens and wonder to myself . . . . �did I used to baby-sit you?�. Then I�d laugh, give my head and shake and realized that I probably baby-sat their parents. Geesh! It really seems hard to grasp that so much time has passed, and I�ve done so much more living outside of this small towns borders than I ever did in them. I couldn�t wait to grow up and move out. I didn�t want to become the next waitress to work at the �Old Hotel�, a secretary at the Insurance office or with the local realtor, or worse yet � a wife.
I digress �.
I have one little �public display of laughter� to share with you, but this time it doesn�t involve a public bathroom, T, or me �.. this time it involves my 83 year old mom. (P.S. This town is SOOOO small that 90% of the population knows my mom and stops to hug her if they see her on the street� too weird! But I suppose that�s better then going out of their way to run her down) Anyway � on our one and only dinner time outing while in town mom decided to treat us to the �Old Hotel� restaurant. Their specialty is supposed to be Chinese food, but that seems like such an oxymoron in a backwoods, boot lickin�, cowboy kickin�, small town. Basically our three menu choices were � grease, extra-grease, or Canadian Chinese � not much a choice if you ask me. I settled on a beef dip (I felt that was safe), my T decided a steak sandwich (of which both words were a contradiction to what arrived on the plate), and my mom only wanted a small bowl of soup.
When the waitress arrived to take our order, it turned out to be someone I graduated high school with. So, all during the ordering, we did a little catching up. One of the traits my mom has picked up in her older years is a slight stutter, and as she placed her order with Rita our waitress (without making eye contact) she brightly said �wuh wonton soup please�. To which Rita replied �small or large�. Mom said �small� with a slight furrowing of her brow.
We didn�t think of it much until the food came. Rita plunked down the largest vessel of War Wonton soup that I�ve ever seen in front of my mom. At which point all three of us grew a �furrowed� brow and exclaimed at the hugeness of said soup. What we all had thought would be a small hand cupped bowl of soup with one or two wontons and at least a cup of broth, turned out to be a great 7 inch in diameter bowl of veggies, broth, meat, more veggies, and two prawns. AND THIS WAS THE SMALL?????
We laughed uproariously once we�d figured out what had gone awry. Mom fished out the prawns and gave them to T. She slurped a couple of spoonfuls of consomm�, found the wonton x 3, and called it quits on the massive basin of broth. The left over not even to be taken home in a swan shaped masterpiece in tin foil. Mom laughed so hard I thought her false teeth were going to fall out.
Me thinks there is a aura that follows this family around when it comes to public adventures.
