mousepad wrote:AdamB wrote: True story, so I get SC patches on all my walking jackets and carry candy to hand out.
Get out. Is that really true?
Seriously. At the end of my suburban block there is a elementary school. When daylight savings time comes around, it gets dark by 5PM, so I go for my "as daily as possible" walk about 5-10 minutes after school lets out, and being in suburbia half the kids can walk to and from school, the young ones with their parents. I'm out walking, and some of them see me from across the street and freeze, and then point. The parents laugh, and then drag the staring kids away. I also bump into them on my side of the street going in the opposite direction, and they do the same thing...freeze....point, ask mommy or daddy, who tend to chuckle, and I of course are required to smile with a twinkle in my eye and give them the occasional wink and greeting.
I've been bum rushed twice, walking on the sidewalk and I hear this clicker clatter of little feet and they run right up beside me and look up, with this stunned, OMG look on their faces. And they freeze. It used to be weird but nowadays all I need to do is smile, and say hello, and on occasion make a christmas crack, for the kid or parent, depending on which of them begins talking first.
I've seriously considered wearing one of those red santa hats, the long white beard is all natural, and I've got the rolly polly shape as well. Happens mostly in the fall, after it starts getting chilly. Been offered jobs at the mall during the season, just out of the blue. It runs in the family, my uncle was the same way, except he had these most piercing blue eyes, he was a perfect Santa.