An 80s band was set to play in a small park one town away. I'm not a big fan of 80s music, but it was the last concert of the summer in that town, so why not? My girlfriend agreed to meet me there. I got there first and chose a corner of a walkway where our chairs could tuck in. People started pouring in around six o'clock, with the music set to start at 6:30.
Everybody who passed me either had a kid or two or a dog or two. I never knew which would be in a passing stroller. People went around the corner way too close to my feet, so I put my red cooler next to them. Surely people would notice the cooler and step around it. That worked fine until a young woman bent over to pick it up and said, "We need to move this out of the way."
I explained to her that the cooler was to protect my feet. She dropped it and went on her merry way.
Ruth showed up and I ducked into the public bathroom, afraid to leave our spot unattended. There was no waiting. It would be a very different story once the music started. One thing about people drinking alcohol, they'd have to pee soonish-ly.
I can't drink anymore because of a bad stomach, so no bathroom worries for me! Ruth and I watched little faces pass us by, groups of little boys, a trio of girls in sun dresses, one little girl with tears running down her face. She locked eyes with me and walked right over.
"Are you lost?" I asked.
She nodded and I took her hand. I told one of the two policemen stationed on the sidewalk, and a blonde woman heard me and scooped up the little girl and took her up front to the microphone. "Lindsay, your daughter Margo is looking for you," the woman said over the PA system a few minutes later. Good for the girl! Children usually know their mothers only as Mom.
People continued to pour into the park. Ruth and I commented on the designer dogs passing by and the well-groomed children in the affluent town. People continued to come close to my feet ensconced in my boots, since the temperature had dropped from our two weeks of 100 degrees, my sandals were causing my right heel to hurt, and I needed a pedicure.
The music started. People jumped onto the wide sidewalk to dance in front of the gazebo, and we never did see what the band inside the gazebo looked like. I waited for Love Shack, my favorite B52 song, but the band was doing other stuff. A woman with a huge double-decker wagon filled with chairs and coolers got hung up on my cooler (not my feet) and had to reposition her load to get through the crowd.
The band never did play Love Shack, but I was up on my feet at the end for Don't Stop Believing and Tainted Love, the finale by the band of the same name. I still couldn't see the band members, but by then, Ruth had already split, and I was ready to find a bathroom at home.
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