Life's made of up little moments of time, some tragic and sad, others funny and joyful, some memorable, some we try to sweep out of our minds because the pain is just too great. Nonetheless, they are moments in our life's line.
A little moment in time.........
For dinner yesterday we decided to go to the only remaining cafeteria is Oklahoma City. That in itself is sad news....a bygone era. When you walk into this place, you are immediately transported back to 1970. Not much has changed in the last 30 or 40 years.......not even the choices on the menu. The food was okay, but not anything special............not going to write home about it. The evening; however, is worth (to me) writing home about.
The Groupon I had for the cafeteria was set to expire on the 2nd of October so I went online to see what their menu looked like. I am trying as always to watch what I eat so I wanted to make my decision before I hit that line. You know very well how a 20 foot line of simmering entrees, steamy vegetables, buttery rolls, and glistening salads dripping in dressing can tempt you. I noticed that on Thursday evening a pianist was entertaining from 5:30 till 7:30. OKAY, why not use that expiring coupon on a night where we can be entertained as well as fed.
When we got there and made our selections, we made a bee-line to the music and were able to get the table (booth) closest to the keyboard. And then the magic began. I am not going to pretend that the music selections are everybody's cup of tea, but to me............well, it represented a time gone by.............a time when one could dine without the next table being loud and drunk, had a crying baby, or had four cell phones on the table. It was the murmur of soft voices, the tinkling of a glass of tea, a coffee cup being placed on the table, a knife being dropped........softly.........softly.
There was a table of 11 senior citizens nearby--by that I mean older than us....mostly in their late 80s or early 90s. Some swing music and a wide spot in the floor was all it took to convince the seniors to dance and dance they did, even singing and clapping to the music. These darling people just made me smile. I just wanted to set down with them and interview each one to find out about their lives. Were they in WWII or the Korean War? Had they been professionals? Were they once the "I'll meet you at the bar after work crowd."? Were they going to the clubs having their martinis in the 60s? Do they have children? Is their spouse living? I wanted to ask the tall, stately gentleman in the nice tan slacks with the matching Hawaiian shirt where he learned to dance like that. I wanted to tell him I loved him singing to the music even if he was sometimes a little off-key.
Most of them left a little after 7:00 p.m., but oh what a night (early evening) for them. They laughed, sang, clapped, danced, and tried to remember the name of THAT song. There wasn't a cell phone in sight. They were in the moment. There was no need to tell all their 783 Facebook friends where they were for they were with their friends, the important friends, the ones they hope to be with again next Thursday.
I want to be them! I want to be able to hobble to the cafeteria to hear the music. I want to sing along with the music. I want to dance. I didn't even see a plate of food on their table, don't have a clue why not...perhaps they ate before we arrived............these people had their coffee and iced tea...........no need for booze......they had each other............they had music............and they had a dance floor. It really didn't matter if they were walking with a cane or if they had a walker, or even if they danced.........they made it.........they enjoyed their evening. They could go back home with a smile on their face and remembrance of the evening for their night's slumber.
Yeah, there were a lot of seniors there and while we don't feel like seniors ourselves, I am sure others would beg to differ. When we walked out a short time later, the hubby said "This cafeteria is the 'Happy Hour' for Seniors." True that! Heavy on the HAPPY.
I love you.
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