5099 I've got to purge memories....

Monday, March 13, 2017

The reason the washing machine eats one sock is because

 if it ate the pair, you'd never notice.

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I've been inundated with scenes from my past a lot lately.  The easy conclusion is that I've been feeling mortal, and need to "examine my past", but I don't think that's what's happening.  I suspect it's just that my life is a lot more restricted these days.  I don't go anywhere, don't do anything, can't make a lot of plans because I don't know what my health or schedule will be, so I have a lot more time to mull things.

One scene is from college days.  There was a whole group of us in the Husky Lounge sitting around a table talking, when a guy walked up to the table and stood next to a seated young woman who was talking about something-or-other.  Without saying a word, he unzipped his pants and flopped out his penis, inches from her face.

Now, this was shocking because it was a crowded public space, full of students grabbing a soda or burger between classes or playing cards.  It was 1963 or so.  Alcohol was difficult to obtain, you could be expelled for drinking at all anywhere, and drugs were virtually unheard of, so I don't know what his reasoning or excuse was.

Anyway, I have admired that unknown young lady (I didn't know her personally) for more than fifty years.  Without pausing in her speaking, without so much as turning her head, by peripheral vision alone, she bent her elbow, raised her hand, gripped the offending member tightly, and JERKED it toward the center of the table as hard as she could.  When she let go I swear it went sproing!

The guy doubled up, yelped, and stumbled out, and she didn't even blink.  Just kept talking.  The rest of us at the table, well, nobody said a word, but a photograph would have caught us sitting ramrod straight up with huge round eyes.  Nobody said anything.  

I've often wondered what that was all about, and whether he suffered any damage.  

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Something different that has been intruding on my thoughts all day today is my high school class ring.  They were distributed on like the last day of school.  The boyfriend at the time insisted I had to immediately give it to him to wear on a chain around his neck.  That was "the thing" at the time, and it would be the height of disloyalty not to present it to him.  So I did.

[Elvis Presley - Wear My Ring Around Your Neck] 

I broke up with him when I went to college, so (wonder of all wonders) he gave it back.  In college, it was not cool to wear a high school ring, so it sat in my jewelry box for a year, and then I started dating Ex#1, and he wanted it.  He "lost" it when I left him and we divorced.   I think I actually wore the damn thing maybe three times.

I  never got a college class ring because I graduated a year early, so I wasn't on the list to be offered the opportunity, and by the time I thought of it, it was too late.  (They still have me listed under the wrong year, so I get the reunion notices a year late, and I barely made it into the correct yearbook.)

Somehow, I still feel deprived.  I really do miss the high school ring.  It was unusual - rectangular and inset instead of the usual mounded round.  Very pretty.
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