You Might Be Surprised

Everyone’s life is full of rich stories and unexpected turns. My stories are no more interesting than your stories. But, I have lived for a long time, and I can reflect back on the fabric of my life to see how different events came together to get me where I am today. While some stories stand out more than others as influences in my life, some stories are just interesting tidbits, things that happened along the way. Not particularly Earth-shattering, but rather peculiar or unusual.  I’ve compiled a few of those random stories here. I’ve titled it “Things That Happened That Might Surprise You." So, here goes…

Things That Happened That Might Surprise You

• My dad met Albert Einstein.

In the 1950s, my dad was enrolled in Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey. Albert Einstein had retired from the college’s Institute for Advanced Studies but continued to be a guest lecturer in Math and Sciences at the university until his death in 1955. My dad met Einstein at a function on campus and shared “Hello” pleasantries. My dad downplayed the encounter and said that mostly he just saw Einstein walking across campus hunched over, muttering to himself. Even so, I’m impressed, and like to think that the experience somehow rubbed off on me.

• I won $50 in a dance contest.

That might not surprise you, but it sure surprised me. I’ve got rhythm and all, but I don’t always have the moves. When I was in college there was an old rundown motel called the Thunderbird in a nearby town. The motel’s bar was called the T-Bird Lounge. This was during the height of the disco age. During one stretch of time, the T-Bird Lounge sponsored a dance contest once a week.

A bunch of us college students paired up to practice our dance moves. Disco was the rage, but in South Carolina, The Shag was the big dance (actually the Official State Dance of South Carolina.) We danced (shagged) to Beach Music. (I am aware that shagging has a different connotation in other parts of the world,  but we are talking DANCING here.) Beach Music had a moderate to fast rhythm and blues beat. Songs like “My Girl” by the Temptations, “Build Me Up Buttercup” by the Foundations, “Under the Boardwalk” by the Drifters, “Hey Hey Baby” by the Swingin’ Medallions. My dance partner and I practiced our moves, which slightly resembled jitterbug moves. The night of the contest, we put it all out on the table and danced our hearts out. We were chosen as the winners, and on a whim, the DJ decided to double the award to $100, so that instead of sharing the $50 prize, we each walked out of there with $50 in our pockets. That was a big win for a poor broke college student! Forty years later, I'm still proud.

• I was assaulted with coleslaw.

When I was a young adult, I went to a movie with a few of my friends. During the movie, I suddenly felt a cold splat on my head. When I reached up to check, I found pieces of mayonnaise-y cabbage mixed into my hair. I looked around in the dark, but none of the movie patrons looked suspicious. There were so many questions. Who? Why? What the….?? I don’t remember what movie we were watching, but it was definitely not Rocky Horror Picture Show. I tried to clean up, but, for the rest of the movie, coleslaw continued to drip down through my hair. It was extremely strange and very gross. My plea: if you go to the movie with a bowl of coleslaw, please keep it to yourself. Suppress the urge to throw it. Restrain yourself. Don’t ruin the movie for someone else.

• I lived in a closet.

When I decided to go to graduate school, I moved in with a friend who had been attending law school at the university. She had a lease on a small garage apartment. The apartment was in a great location and the rent was dirt-cheap. There was one big room and a small kitchen area. She slept on a daybed in the main room. There was also a large closet which was long and narrow. I hung my clothes on a rack in the closet. We placed a mattress on the floor in there, and that’s where I slept. I could stand upright for a few steps into the closet, then the roof slanted down lower and lower, so I had to squat down to go further. It was kind of like sleeping in a tent, with a Harry Potter closet-under-the-stairs-at-the-Dursley’s-house vibe. I was glad to have a place to rest my head as I started my degree and my friend finished out her lease. She was very kind to share her space with me. After a few months, the lease was up and we moved into a legit apartment.

• I became wise in my 50’s.

When my kids were growing up, it was routine practice for the dentist to remove their wisdom teeth to prevent overcrowding and misalignment of their teeth. But, in my childhood, that procedure was not always done. Not sure whose decision it was, but none of my wisdom teeth were ever removed. Imagine my surprise and my dentist’s surprise when, in my 50’s, the sharp tip of a tooth started breaking through my upper right gum. The tip of the iceberg, so to speak. My wisdom tooth was erupting. About 4 years in, my wisdom tooth has surfaced and successfully flattened out so that it looks like a typical molar. It continues to gain height, but, so far, it is only about 1/2 of the height of all the other molars. It sits back there in the back of my mouth, holding its ground, slowly rising to the level of its comrades. And, it confirms that I have finally become wise. I’ve got the wisdom tooth to prove it.

• We ate dinner with The Mafia (unintentionally).

In the late 1990s we were visiting family in Miami. One night, the in-laws already had plans, so they left us to fend for ourselves for dinner. Our elementary-aged son was very adamant that he wanted us to eat at a random pizza joint by the beach. Looking up restaurants the old-school way, he had picked the restaurant out of the Yellow Page ad in the phone book. So, our family with 3 kids (one hadn’t been born yet), plowed into the tiny dive restaurant, pushing a stroller and making lots of boisterous noise. We immediately noticed a hushed group of serious types sitting at a table, looking over their shoulders staring at us like we had just landed a spaceship in the middle of the restaurant. They were the only people in the small dining room. The counter staff and wait staff looked at us sideways like they weren’t sure what to do with us. They took our order then we sat down and carried on with busy family chatter.  The employees regularly walked over to the other table, huddled up with the men sitting there, stole glances at us, then went back into the kitchen area. It was extremely awkward, but we stayed put, ate our pizza, paid, said our thank you’s, and left.

Can you imagine how rambunctious and rowdy this crew was while we ate pizza in the quiet restaurant?

We occasionally thought back on what a weird experience that night was; as if we had walked in on something we weren’t supposed to see.  

About 15 years later, my son was watching a true crime episode on TV when he jumped up and ran to tell us what he had just seen. The story was about that same pizza restaurant in Miami. The restaurant was run by members of the Gambino crime family. We quickly checked the timeline and realized that the year and month we had visited the restaurant was likely the time that the mob members were accused of killing an associate. After several years of FBI investigation, wiretaps, and informants, the South Florida branch of the Mafia faced charges of racketeering, loan sharking, passing counterfeit checks, bank fraud, and murder.  According to an article in the Miami New Times, the accused had been associated with New York City mobster John Gotti and operated their business out of the restaurant. Research shows that in current times some of the players are imprisoned and some have died. I really don’t know the rest of the story. Hey, listen, especially if your family is involved in organized crime-- I don't know ANYTHING!

We have no doubt, based on the vibe that we got those many years ago, that our touristy family stumbled into a restaurant “front” where very few customers ventured. The business at hand had nothing to do with pizza and everything to do with crime. What do you think about that? What an unbelievable story!

And, what a good story to end on. Maybe I’ll share more stories another day. Did I surprise you? I told you that you might be surprised to hear these things.

What unexpected, ridiculous, or surprising stories do you have? I’d love to hear them!