Tuesday, May 13, 2008

(Ladies, insert your Dad here.)

Overheard in the café attached to the grocery store where I was last evening:

Man on cell phone: "I'm in a grocery store in [location] Pennsylvania. Yep."

[pause]

"Well, I have to go to all sorts of strange places to earn money for your tuition and rent, and to take you and your Mom to fancy-schmancy meals like the one yesterday. What did you think of that place, huh?"

[pause]

"Yeah, me too. You know, the chef doesn't normally come out and talk to diners like that. Only special guests."

[pause]

"Well, anyway, keep up the good work at school. Your mom and I are proud of you."

[pause]

"Okay, love you too. Um. Honey? One more thing. That dress your wore yesterday? Uhm.... I... think you need to wear leggings with it or something. It... well, it looked more like a blouse than a dress. Nearly gave me a heart attack. Okay?"

Funny how the clothes men stare at in appreciation on strangers will make them uncomfortable when worn by their own daughters.

8 comments:

Just Me said...

My own mother bought me the most depraved dress I ever owned, a sparkly gold spandex low-cut tank dress with a hem that stopped only a few inches below my butt, and she selected black and sparkly-gold pantyhose to go with it.

She also bought me some of the loveliest lingerie I'd ever worn, yet in her mind she sincerely believed I was worthy of my white wedding gown.

I feel a post coming on...

--V said...

Mothers are different. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's pride that you can get away with wearing things they'd love to wear but either physically can't or just wouldn't be (emotionally) comfortable in. Dressing you the way they'd love to dress.

Kind of along the same lines as the way a lot of women plan their daughters' weddings the way they would have liked to have had their own.

Am I way off base here? I have no kids (Delilah doesn't count, because she won't let me dress her up), so all I have are theories based on observations and also upon being someone's daughter. Do you dress Precious Daughter in stuff you'd love to be able to wear?

Just Me said...

Ummm... no. She's only six, and she's so passive that I really try to let her pick her own stuff.

And I find belly shirts and hip-hugger jeans on little girls a bit disturbing. They're little girls, not J-Lo.

--V said...

Heck, I find that stuff disturbing on just about anyone. It's a look that most women just can't pull off. Not that they don't still try. Ugh. I'm so tired of clothes that look like they've been shrunk in the dryer.

Anonymous said...

Mmm - dads and daughters. Didn't you see The Sopranos, series 6, final episodes, the one where Tony deals with Coco?

Well, in a parallel universe where I had BPD of a markedly sociopathic nature, that would be me.

--V said...

No, I haven't seen those yet. The sixth season is just starting in syndication on A&E over here. I don't get HBO, so I didn't see 'em the first time out. I am very, very far behind in Sopranos episodes. Besides, I've forgotten so much of the plot that I'm thinking of starting over again from the beginning by renting discs from Netflix.

Anonymous said...

I have all the DVDs, Series 1 to 6 inclusive. That's something you didn't know about me and probably wouldn't have guessed.

--V said...

No I didn't know that, but I think I could've guessed it. I'm a big fan of mafia movies myself. Don't know what it is. Fascination with a way of life that's completely alien to me?