this imploding heart

Don't remember much from that far back in the past.

I can't say we hadn't been warned.

As we were shaking out our just-got-out-of-the-city locks and putting up our borrowed-from-Ida's-old-beau tent in the campground where if they're not open, you pay yourself when we heard what can best be described as Hootin' and Hollerin'.

Mister Baseball Hat who is Walking Like an Egyptian with 2 sixers of smirnoff ice watches us watch the pickup trucks roll in and says "It's gonna be a loud one. Softball game's gettin out! Whoooooooo!"

Ida and I finish establishing our place in the tent village on the roadside and get back in the car. We go to Chico's Pizza for dinner.

I'm going to take a moment here to compare and contrast. In the city, while people may be checking you out, and you may be checking out people, it's rarely meant to be obvious. I may look like I'm casting my eyes over the floor, but I'm checking to be sure you're not wearing socks with sandals. He looks like he's looking over his shoulder to see if the waiter is coming with his whiskey neat, but he's making a quick assessment of the twins. It's a given.

In small towns, people honk their horns at you as you walk down the street. Men with gold capped teeth and big white cowboy hats swivel in their chairs and lean on the bar to watch you order your pizza. When the lady behind the beer counter asks the busboy in the ropers to help you get your dollar out of the juke box, an entire table of what you have to assume are his friends shout "OH YEAH! He'd LOVE to help her out!". And when you get quarters for your dollar and start dropping them in, the drunken older gentleman in the giant belt buckle who seems to be having dinner with his daughter says "Play some GOOD music now. None of this new age crap. Then you and I can dance."

The theme is this: Dear Men of Moses Lake,

We can see you.

Best Regards,

Sjet and Ida.

Back to the tent story.

So after we talk about stealing all the 79 cent mustard from out in front of the Wal-o-saurus and have a terribly sweet light beer at The Ripple "We'll light up your night.", we headed back to our lovely campground.

While Ida visited the pay showers and washed her face, I changed into my Pillow Fight and Ghost Story pajamas and set up the flashlights-in-mesh-pockets overhead lighting system. Our next door neighbors were having the following conversation.

Girl 1: (speaking as though she is holding her breath) "Dude....here"
Boy 1: "That's not my lighter"
Girl 2: "Who cares, just hit it."
Boy 1: "But that's not my lighter."
Boy 2: "It's my lighter, you wanna give it here? What's the big deal?"
Girl 1: (still holding her breath) "he's got this thing about his lighter."

and so on.

2 tents and an RV over, the matronly woman is screaming at the top of her lungs: "I know how to take care of my grand babies! I love my grandbabies" and alternately "Get your pussy ass out here and have a drink! You sucha pussy, goin to bed! Get your pussy ass out here." and then back to "I love my grandbabies!"

Okay. This all went on for quite some time, but I managed to fall asleep. The sun rose. There were noises. At first I thought it was the wind, but then I realized that the protective cover had been removed from our tent. I looked at Ida. We both half sat up and listened. Someone was moving around the tent.

Ida: "They just took the cover off the tent."
Sjet: "What are they doing?"
Ida: "Shh."

The continued to move around the tent, slightly pulling at this and that. When i heard them move to where the window was, I unzipped it and sat up.

"Hi. Do you think you could knock that shit off?"

Two baseball capped men stared at me, and didnt say anything. Obviously still drunk and trying to sabotage the wrong tent, they didn't apologize,they just wandered away.

I put my shoes on and walked around the tent to find that all the stakes had been removed and the top had been detatched and thrown on the ground. I re-assembled things and got back inside.

Sjet: "did they say anything?"
Ida: "Yeah. 'this is a good tent.'"

In the morning, the tent next to ours had been collapsed, but the people inside remained asleep. Ida and I went to Dennys.

the end.

Posted by Sonya at May 28, 2003 02:50 PM