Worthwhile Silliness

Greetings from Poosey.

I had no idea what I was getting into, but when I’m dealing with Jill that’s often the case. Jill Briggsly ranks toward the top of our small town’s nutty characters and predictability is not her forte. The invitation arrived in the mail: “A surprise birthday! My house, 2 p.m. Tuesday. No gifts.” I made a wild guess that since Jill was hosting the surprise that it wasn’t her birthday and I couldn’t even bring a birthday card since I didn’t know whose birth date we were celebrating. We trudged through the snow at the appointed hour and were greeted by a birthday cake and candles, a pot of coffee and enough crepe paper streamers to outfit a small Homecoming float.

There’s no need trying to outguess Jill because it can’t be done, so we sat around her living room wondering just who in the heck we were commemorating. That’s when Jill stood up in her dress chosen especially for the occasion and announced that her dentures were 35 years old. I’m not kidding. We’d come to a birthday party for a set of false teeth. Jill gave a short testimonial speech about how her dentures had been with her for three and a half decades, how they’d been faithful through tough T-bones and corn on the cob, how they’d soaked silently each night in the cup beside her bed, and by the looks of them… she did not take them out… they looked as if they’d last another decade. We sat there with our own dentures agape, silently asking ourselves if we’d truly just heard what we thought we’d heard.

Jill served the cake and we had a pleasant afternoon of chitchat then drove home wondering just who among us had lost her mind. The next day each of us received a card thanking us for helping to add a little silliness to our lives to break the grip of a long, cold winter. Her closing line: “Some folks run down South to escape the snow and blow, but those of us left up north to shiver need to find ways to break the icy doldrums.” Her party had simply been a bit of well-planned silliness to warm up a cold February. Well done, Jill, and I’ll admit that I put my dentures to soak with a special bit of appreciation that evening.

I truly miss the eccentrics who used to run wild in small town America. Every burg and village used to have its own collection of fruitcakes and weirdos, and they provided the town with just enough levity to get us through even the darkest days. Then it became the trend to put these folks in special facilities and now we medicate them back into a state of semi-normalcy. ‘Tis a pity. I liked them better the way they were.

But it might do us all well to adopt a bit of lunacy as we trudge our way through another Midwest winter. The month of March lends us possibilities that match that of denture birthdays starting with March 1st, National Peanut Butter Lover’s Day and if you have a peanut allergy it’s also National Horse Protection Day. Go out and stand in front of Trigger to ward off falling comets. The 2nd of March tops even the delights of peanut butter, proclaiming itself National Banana Cream Pie Day. If a slab of that stuff isn’t enough to bring you out of your winter woes then you simply have no soul at all. The 4th of March gives us a double with both National Pancake Day and Hug a G.I. Day. My advice: combine the two and hug a vet over a stack of blueberry pancakes. You can skip National Dentists’ Day on March 6th jump right to National Meatball Day on the 9th. March 9th has also been deemed National Napping Day after the return of Daylight Savings Time. Girl Scout Day comes on the 12th with Potato Chip Day on the 14th, followed by Corned Beef and Cabbage Day on St. Pat’s. The rest of the month is strewn with such reasons to celebrate as National Ravioli Day, Salute a Nurse Day, Quilting Day, and perhaps my favorite as March 18th brings us the return of National Kick Butts Day.

Our world is filled with somewhat lonely but totally friendly people sitting in their separate homes on these cold winter evenings… widows and widowers missing their spouses, moms and dads spending trying to redesign their first empty nest as the kids have moved on, singles and couples who’d just like a bit of human contact without spending the money to take off to Florida, and just plain good folks whose life would be enriched by spending it with you. What better time to get a bit silly and simply spend time together because this human race is a pretty good idea?

You ever ‘round Poosey, stop by. We may not answer the door but you’ll enjoy the trip.