Sunday, June 17, 2007

Rambling eccentricities

I had another dream about Pinehurst last night. Usually the dreams center around living in my parents house, and this one did. There wasn't anything noteworthy about the dream. . .just that it took place in Pinehurst.

I did have a Pinehurst dream a few weeks back, where I was about Jr. High age, was riding my bike home from the Pinehurst school, and thinking about some boy I liked. We were getting ready to leave on vacation. (Could have been prompted by my recent writings about vacation.) I wasn't excited about going, and I think it had something to do with the guy I liked. (Funny, this dream was fairly realistic, but didn't mirror my actual experience. However the ideas came from a real-life incident - that I will likely write about in the near future.)

The Sunday Scribblings people are blogging on Eccentricity. I sent Myrtle Beached Whale a couple of examples of eccentric people that I will share with you here (with minor modifications). . .although I am not really writing on eccentricity. . .

Maybe the scribblings aren’t speaking to you, because it’s a fantasy piece. . .”How eccentric do you feel?”

I take myself too seriously to “pretend” to be eccentric, although I do like to act goofy once in a while. I think there’s a fine line between eccentricity and insanity. . .

Take “The Blue Lady” from Kellogg, for example: When I was going to beauty school at Millie’s in the late 70s – there was this woman who used to be a school teacher. She called herself “The Blue Lady.” She wore blue, she drove a blue van, (prob. Lived in a blue house), colored her silver hair blue “baby blue”, and even drew on her eyebrows with a baby blue eye liner. Every time she came to the school, Millie would say, “Tell her we don’t have any “Blue Mood” (temporary blue coloring). This was because she would pick up a bottle from us ever so often to keep up her image. (Now, she was eccentric.)

Another lady that came into the beauty school, would come without her teeth. She was probably in her 40s or 50s at that time. It was really difficult to carry on a conversation with her, because I couldn't keep from looking at her mouth. (Now she was’t eccentric, just weird.)

When you are in beauty school, one of the first things you learn is that the customer can see your facial expressions. It isn't part of the course, but if you have any scruples at all, you can figure it out pretty quickly. So when someone sits in the chair, you can't make faces behind their back, show surprise at something that has gone awry, or indicate that you are frustrated, scared, or anything that will tip her off to something you do not want her to know.

One day the toothless lady came in for a set and style. The student stylist had set TL's hair up in rollers except the bottom edge in the back, as it was too short to roll. The stylist secured the hair with pink hair tape to keep it smooth while TL was sitting under the dryer. Now the stylist always said the same thing to her customers when she pulled the tape off of the dried hair. It was "Grit your teeth!"

Forgetting who was in the chair, she said her usual warning, then remembered this lady wasn't wearing any teeth. As she was telling the story to us later, we all started laughing as she described not only what she had said, but how she ducked down behind the lady's chair - so TL wouldn't see her silently laughing.

4 comments:

sundaycynce said...

I had never really thought about how hysterical beauty school or working in a beauty shop had the potential to be. Now I will have to pay more attention to what may be going on behind my back.

Fun read! Thanks

Pinehurst in my Dreams said...

You may be unpleasantly surprised!
(Especially if you forget to wear your teeth or other body parts).

Hope that didn't offend, just trying to be funny. . .but then it occured to me that someone reading may actually be missing an arm or leg.

myrtle beached whale said...

I once knew a man with one leg named Mike. OK, that was an old joke.
What do you call a woman with one leg? OK, that was even older.

Pinehurst in my Dreams said...

Peg?