I was noticing with pride that my entire outfit today cost twenty-five cents. This includes the fabulous Gilda scarf that my mom bought me the yarn and beads to make (in different colors than the one pictured in the link). My hand-me-down-receiving skills, my yard sale skills, and my knitting skills had me feeling quite smug for a moment.
And then I remembered this story.
One time when I went to Seattle (with my first husband), we got out of our car at the hotel and were accosted by a mostly toothless gentleman who said, "Excuse me, sir. For a quarter, the first word out of your mouth, I'll make a song out of it."
We were taken aback. Also, the man was possibly very drunk, as his words were almost unintelligible. My husband said, "For a quarter?"
The gentleman said, "Yeah. I'll make a song out of the first word that come out of your mouth. In fact, I'm overdue!"
Then he began to sing in a jazzy way,
"For a quarter,
Oooo, nickles and dimes.
For a quarter,
Oooo, Jesus, I fell in love and I don't know why."
It was an awesome song. We gave him a handful of change--nickles and dimes.
"Oh! A whole bottle of wine!" he shouted, as he blessed us and staggered away.
And all I got for my quarter was a pair of pants, a sweater, and a gorgeous scarf.
5 comments:
I love that story. It is even more awesome when you sing the song. Maybe you could download a version of you singing it?
Also, that is the femme fatale of scarves. It is SWANKY, I tell you!
And you were just LOVELY in your 25cent outfit yesterday! So chic roaming the halls of the Capitol.
I wish I could hear you sing the song--do you add your own version of a drunken slur?
It's much better when I sing it. Perhaps next time we visit the Bay Area I'll stop in for a command performance.
I'm not much of an impressionist (although I think I do a great Marge from Monster's Inc.), but my seventy-year-old drunk toothless black man is pretty much spot on.
In Italy, I always rewarded anyone who honestly entertained me. Looks like that man would have made the cut.
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