Old Lady Perfume...

It is another sunny morning, though I have noticed that the mornings are gradually getting cooler and cooler as autumn sets in. As I walked in, I felt a warm burst of air come over me and as I continued to walk in I prayed to god that the heater was not on as I am not an individual that is often cold.

As I was seated and prompted as to what I would like to drink, I took a quick look around the restaurant to notice that I was the only person aside from an older couple, about mid-seventies to early eighties in age. The male looked as if his name could be Steven, so I’ll refer to him as Steven. The female had a fairly large black bow in her white hair, so I’ll refer to her as Bo. They both sat there quietly with giant awkward smiles on their faces. They had no food yet, only with a glass of water for each of them. As my server again approached me to take my order more and more people began to enter. As my server left with my order, I noticed an African American lady about in her late fifties. When Steven noticed her, he quickly stood up with an even bigger smile and began to quickly shuffle towards her with his arms wide open. When Steven quickly stood up, it caught Bos’ attention and she noticed what was going on. She instantly gave a gigantic smile as well. As they said their Hellos’, all of them began to visit with one another and became deeply engaged in conversation. I was astonished as to how engaged they were with one another as older people tend to be slower and less aware of what is going on around them. There was a great deal of happiness and joy in their immediate presence, seeing people that happy with one another brought a sense hope to me as I tend to view the world as a callous obstacle that must be overcome.

Finally, my order arrived and as I began to eat, a group of older individuals, all about in their mid-sixties walked in and were seated in a booth one ahead of myself, one male and two females. As they passed where I was sitting as I began to eat, a strong smell of perfume came across me. I would consider it to be the typical stench of “old-lady” perfume.

As I recovered from the gut wrenching odor, a waiter approached an older couple that was seated directly ahead of me and prompted them for their order. It seemed that the older couple were regulars there to the restaurant, as the waiter knew them by name. As the older gentleman told the waiter what he would like to eat, he insisted to her that he wanted his bacon “crispy”. That specification struck me as quite odd, as I thought to myself, “isn’t all bacon crispy?” At that thought, I began to think in more detail of how older individuals tend to make odd or unnecessary labels/specifications that could be considered common sense. After some time had passed and the couple finished their meal, their waiter again came to collect the empty plates and upon doing so, she asked how their food was. I thought to myself that for-sure the older gentleman would have something to complain about, and sure enough, he complained about how dry his toast was. And again, I thought to myself of what an odd remark he had made about the toast as anyone would expect toast to be dry (again, that’s just common sense).

I began to get irritated with that older couple and decided to direct my attention elsewhere.

A group of three individuals, two men and a woman, all about in their mid to late thirties were seated in the booth right beside me. They seemed like the average person of Mexican-American descent as they did speak a mixture of Spanish and English while I observed them. I was quite astonished by the fact that they each ordered a side of salsa and grilled jalapenos with their food, but then again, it is quite common for people of the latino culture to eat chile with their meals.