Newsgroups: talk.bizarre
From: ajd@itl.itd.umich.edu (AjD)
Subject: Favorite grocery store encounters
Date: Wed, 27 May 92 03:48:44 GMT

At Johnny's Superette, right on the Cambridge/Somerville border (just
up the street a block away is the sign: "Welcome to Beautiful Somerville.
Parking Rules Enforced.").  After another annoying and tiring day working
two jobs and dealing with walking through the financial district where
I cut too distinct a difference between myself and all the other wage
whores there (meaning, I look like a rock band reject, and don't wear
a suit), I just wanted some milk and a frozen dinner of some kind.  By
the cooler with all the dead chickens, near the display of jug wine,
I was looking at cookies and crackers and I heard, "Turn around."
      I didn't recognize the voice, so I ignored it, but she said, "You,
with the long hair.  Turn around."
      There was an old woman staring at me intently.  She was very short.
      I figured I was going to get the usual when-I-was-your-age-i-didn't-
ever-deal-with-weirdos-like-you-because-we-hung-them-from-pillories-on-the-
edge-of-town-with-a-sign-that-said-"Welcome-to-Somerville.-Hair-Length-
Rules-Enforced."  But instead, she said, "That's very beautiful hair.
When I was a girl back in Ireland, my sisters and I used to help each other
brush out our hair, because we didn't have any of those hair care things.
My sister had the longest hair, but mine was almost as long.  I cried it
when I had to cut it.  Do you try to take care of your hair, or do you
just let it grow out?"
      We had a pleasant fifteen minute conversation about long hair.
She said that she was glad that it was acceptable for anybody to wear
their hair as they pleased.  She wished that her husband could have grown
his long, because it was straight and blond, but in the 1920s it just
wasn't allowed.
      What a wonderful woman.  I hope she's still around.

AjD