You would think in the short month of February I would not have overheard much. But February was a goldmine of delicious overheard conversations.
We went and saw The Lego Movie (it is very good. My husband and son think it was one of the best movies they have ever seen) as a family. The theater was full of excited children. The following exclamations were emitted from three children in the theater. I would guess they were each around three years old. I think some of the movie went over their heads.
“Mom! You almost made us late for the movie!” As previews had just started and they were sitting down.
“He looks like a crazy elf!” A child screamed when the preview for “The Amazing Spider-man 2” came across the screen. I was not sure if the child meant Spiderman or the villian. But I wanted to shake that kid’s hand for admitting there are crazy elves among us, because we all know nothin’ is scarier than a crazy elf.
SMALL SPOILER! DO NOT READ THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH IF YOU PLAN ON SEEING THIS MOVIE:
“When is the movie going to play again?” If you have seen this movie, then you know at the end there are real people. The little kid could not understand that the people were part of the movie. I wonder if he thought it was just a long commercial… Which, let’s face it, it kind of was.
My husband and I were eating at a new restaurant in town. We were close to the bar. I could hear the bartender speaking to some people, but I could not believe what I was hearing. When he was passing by I asked him if I had overheard him correctly. He explained that I had.
This is what I overheard:
“My stepdad moved to Alaska when he was twenty years old. He learned how to mush dogs. He bought a team and they led him to a piece of property.
He built a cabin and lived there for thirty five years.”
I was able to get some more information from him after speaking to him. It turns out the stepdad built four different cabins in the thirty five years he lived there. He made a trek into town once a year for supplies. When his pelt business took off, the little planes would fly directly to him to trade supplies so he no longer had to make the journey into town.
When I asked him how long it had taken the stepdad to build the cabin. The young man grinned.
“Four days,” he said.
“Four days!” I exclaimed.
“My stepdad always said it should never take anyone longer than four days to build a cabin.”
It took me four days just to complete this post.
I don’t think I will be moving to Alaska anytime soon.
My husband and I were at our favorite restaurant for Valentine’s Day. As we were waiting for our table, a big boisterous man walked by us. He was the head chef for the restaurant. He threw open the kitchen doors and cheerfully exclaimed to the other chefs and waitstaff within the room:
“Hello my butterflies!
How are we doing today?”
I think he was having a good Valentine’s Day. In any case, it made me smile.
Remember when I said I could not for the life of me resist a little girl selling girl scout cookies? Well, two weeks ago was no exception.
“Would you like to buy some cookies?” Asked a little girl of about eight years old. Her freckled little cheeks were bursting with her smile.
“Of course!” I said. I purchased two boxes for eight dollars.
I gave her a ten dollar bill.
“I’ll get her her two dollars!” She excitedly told her mother.
She turned to me and said. “I’m in third grade. I can do math.”
I smiled.
She took that as a sign she should continue,”Third grade sucks!” She exclaimed.
Her mother’s face turned red. “Honey! Don’t say that!”
I smiled and took my cookies and walked away. As I was walking, I heard the mother whispering to the little girl about not telling people that third grade sucks. I was almost out of ear shot.
“Why?! It does!” Was yelled loudly in indignation behind me.
You know what doesn’t suck? Girl Scout Cookies! Man, I wish I did not know exactly how many come in a sleeve and what sixteen minus fourteen is.
It’s still sixteen, right?
My book club met at a restaurant a few days later. Again, we were seated near a bar. This is going to be the theme for the rest of this post. In fact, this month’s “Overheard In” should really have been titled “Overheard Near A Bar.”
A young man was getting exceedingly loud and obnoxious. I thought I overheard people wishing him a happy birthday.
I told my girlfriends it was that young man’s birthday and asked them how old they thought he was turning.
There were many answers. The general consensus was twenty-four. I thought he was much older.
So, my friend called the young man over and said, “I heard it’s your birthday. Happy birthday.”
“It’s not my birthday,” he responded.
Crap! Well, I can’t overhear right all of the time.
My friend was unfazed. “Well, if it were your birthday, how old would you be turning?”
The young man blinked and then he drawled out, “Is that some kind of ****ed up line to get me to tell you how old I am?”
Again unfazed. “Of course not. I was just curious how old you would be turning if it was your birthday.”
The young man gave his answer, “twenty five.”
The girls were right!
The young man left.
Unfortunately, he came back as he thought this was an open invitation to speak to us happily married older women who were just curious as to the age of the loudness at the bar so we would know when it came to our own children.
My friend had on a hat. He went up to her.
“I like your hat.”
“Thanks,” she replied.
He began a sad little tale, “I tried on one of those yesterday. And my friend said, ‘you can’t buy that hat!’ And I said, ‘why not?’ And he said, ’cause you’re not Irish.’ And I said, ‘But I’m a quarter Irish.’ And he said, ‘Man, you have to be one hundred percent Irish to wear that hat!’
He paused, “I should have just bought it.”
Who knew this overheard conversation would turn into a reminiscent shopping trip and regrets about not purchasing an accessory.
It’s okay bar dude, we’ve all been there.
My family and I went to a barbecue place in town. They sat my family in the bar. It was lunchtime, so it was fine. There was no one actually at the bar. Just booths being filled.
Diagonal to us in a booth identical to our own, sat three elderly gentlemen in their mid-seventies. They were all dressed handsomely. I could hear them conversing and laughing all through the meal.
It was nice.
Their bill came and the man closest to me reached for it, but the man across from him was quicker.
“Oh, Bill, let me get that.”
“No,” Bill replied. “I’ll get it this time. Besides you’re the youngest. Let your elder treat you.”
They all chuckled at this.
Then Bill softly said, “It was just so nice to get out of the house today.”
The energy and mood of the table changed. It became very somber.
The third man said, “I’m sorry Bill.”
And they were quiet for a brief second more.
Then the youngest among them asked Bill, “How have you been holding up?”
And Bill replied, “You know, surprisingly well.
Surprisingly well.”
We’ll move on from that elderly group to a cheerful outing of an elderly female group.
It was the same night as the night our book club met Charlie (the hatless fellow).
I looked up from my dinner towards the bar as I heard loud cheering and clapping. I thought perhaps Charlie had gotten his hat afterall. But it was not Charlie in a hat that greeted my eyes when they settled onto the scene at the bar.
At the bar, two people were passionately kissing.
One was a young man of around twenty-three.
The other, an older woman of sixty five.
The bar crowd was going nuts over their embrace.
When they finally broke from each other, a group of the older woman’s friends circled around her and together they all laughed and chatted their way out of the restaurant.
I, being the curious sort who just cannot not pry into other’s business jumped up from my table and chased the women from the restaurant.
“Excuse me,” I said to the woman whose cheeks were still flushed from her adventure at the bar.
“I have to know about that kiss!”
The woman chucked and said, “It’s my sixty fifth birthday today and that young man gave me quite a birthday present.”
I smiled with her and said, “That is so awesome! Happy Birthday!”
She replied, “Thank you! It is my friend’s birthday too and she got the same present!”
I wished her friend a happy birthday as well and I watched the happy group of elderly ladies leave the restaurant giggling like school girls and practically skipping into the night.
I think they must have had a fabulous February.
How about you? Any funny conversations overheard? Memories like the above to share?
If you missed January’s Overheard, you can find it here.
