The Golden Spoons: people

I am a southern girl through and through. I have lived my whole life in the south - North Carolina and a brief stint in Nashville. Therefore, it shouldn't be too surprising that I like country music. I have heard it said, though, that you either love or hate it, so I realize it is something that many folks do not enjoy.

That being said, have you heard Miranda Lambert's latest song? The title of the song is All Kinds of Kinds. Part of the song is typical country music with a hefty dose of banjo and twang. The lyrics, however, are some you might not expect. She sings about a circus wedding - and actual circus - with an acrobat and Horatio the human cannonball. She also sings about a congressman with "closets full of skeletons and dresses that he wore on Friday night." What on Earth are those things doing in a country song?? Well, the basic premise is that it takes all kinds of people to "keep the world spinning."

As I type this, I am sitting in the Atlanta airport piggybacking on my husband's business trip and looking forward to attending my first blog conference on Saturday. This airport is the busiest airport in the world. One could sit here for hours just "people watching" and never get bored. There are people of all races, ages, and ethnicities passing by. There are children. There are families and business travelers. People coming in from other countries and people heading out to all parts of the world. There are "all kind of kinds" in this airport every single day.

The truth is that, when you are out in public, you just never know what you might see and some of the things we see are . .well . . weird. We have all probably seen the "People of Wal-Mart" photos. They, in fact, have an entire website dedicated to sharing pictures of the crazy, weird things people do and wear when out in public. But, strange public happenings are not limited to Walmart.

So, what’s the strangest thing I have ever seen someone do in public??

That’s easy. It’s been over eleven years and my husband and I still remember it (in fact, we still chuckled as we remembered the story for this post!).

It was a Saturday morning. I was largely pregnant with my first child. My husband and I headed out to the grocery store that morning and stopped at a local fast food place to grab some breakfast. There was a man in the restaurant who obviously had some mental challenges. He sat at a table alone, talking to himself rather animatedly. Everyone tried their best to avert their attention from him, but, eventually, he got up and started walking around trying to strike up conversations with the other restaurant-goers. It didn’t take long before he made his way over to us, sat down at the table next to us, and started chatting. He immediately noticed my belly, began commenting on my pregnancy, and asking rather uncomfortable questions. Then, he proceeded to share details of his girlfriend’s pregnancy and delivery; details that would most definitely qualify as TMI (too much information)! Then, he did something really, really, strange. He took several packets of mayonnaise, tore them open, and began to slather them on his hands, arms, and face. He proclaimed to us that there was no need to buy fancy lotion at the store because mayonnaise was the best moisturizer there was AND it is free - all you have to do is grab a bunch when you go to a fast food restaurant!

Photo Credit

I promise, folks, I am not making this up. Once, in public, I saw somebody slathering mayonnaise all over himself and touting it as “the best lotion ever!” He never gave us his name, so my husband and I refer to him as “Mayonnaise Man” and we still giggle anytime we drive by one of those restaurants.

As the song says, “It takes all kinds of kinds!” ;-)

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This post was written as part of Finish The Sentence Friday and the prompt was "Once, in public, I saw somebody..." FTSF is hosted by some wonderful blogging ladies. Please give them a visit and check out all the other blogs that participate as well!

Janine at Janine’s Confessions of a Mommyaholic

Stephanie at Mommy, for Real

Kate at Can I Get Another Bottle of Whine?

Kristi at Finding Ninee

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Want to read about some mothers acting strangely?? None of them have a mayonnaise fetish (as far as I know), but they have done some crazy things!! Get your copy today for Kindle, Nook, or paperback from amazon or Barnes and Noble.