Strange People I Have Known

 Funny where creative ideas come from.  Sometimes, I dream them.  Sometimes I imagine them.  But today, while making oatmeal cookies, I started to think about weird situations I have been in/heard about/lived through/been horrified by......the full monte of strange but true experiences only possible after having lived 50++ years.

In view of that, I've decided to periodically write about these situations, lest they be lost to history forever because of a) my death or b) my precious grasp of reality in a brain growing tired and old.

Let's call her Doreen.  I won't use real names, although it will be no stretch for the people who know this story to make the leap.  

Doreen was a wonderfully kind person, just like us; a single, struggling mom with two tots, just like us.  We were all bedraggled,  divorced people, borrowing five dollars from each other to make it to payday.  We'd watch each other's kids, cook a meal for each other, loan each other gas money to get to work, borrow tampons.

One day, in a wonderful moment of generosity when one of her clients tipped her well, she called and invited all the tots to go with her and her kids to see the Disney movie "Fantasia" at a local theatre, her treat.  What a glorious thing.  What a generous thing.  That was going to cost at least $25 and she was paying for it, taking charge of the kids, and giving the rest of us beat up souls a few hours respite from toddlers, chaos and noise.  To us, it all sounded like a little piece of private heaven and we happily waved our kids off.  Yes, we packed them off with home-popped popcorn bags, stale Halloween candy and pocket smuggled juice boxes.  But as any kid will tell you, not important where it came from, as long as it was there.

Sadly, in the first half hour of the show, Doreen realized she had misread the Marquee.  The movie was not Fantasia, but rather Phantasm, a bloody, stab, slash, demon horror of a movie.  It took her that long to realize there would be no singing flowers and butterflies above the screams emanating from the silver screen.  Trust me, those screams had nothing whatsoever on the screams of terror coming from our kids.  And then there was the movie house theatre, packed with teenagers screaming "GET THOSE GODDAMNED KIDS OUTTA HERE!".

All in all, not a good night for any of us.  In fact, some of those kids were still having night terrors well into adolescence.  

Alas, this is the plight of overworked, underpaid single women in our society.  A simple glance at a theatre marquee could lead to mass confusion, horrific terror and upset friends.  What can I say?  We've all been this distracted.  It's a miracle our kids made it to adulthood.  I look at my really comfortable life now and am so thankful for the hard work I put in (and my current husband).  I cannot honestly say I miss those days of hardship, worry and living on the edge of barely solvent.  But after a few months passed and the friends talked about the marquee mishap, I can't remember laughing so long or so hard at things, either.