Games are played at some parties. At a bridal or baby shower there are games that are usually pretty silly and are used to make everyone feel they’re part of the whole wedding or baby stuff. At a shower a friend and I gave I learned of a game where there were no winners or prizes, but this “bridal game” was overwhelmingly fun and funny. For the lack of another name, let’s call it Snippets.
As the bride-to-be was opening her gifts, two of us party givers wrote down things that were said by the guests and the guest of honor. Then as cake was being enjoyed we read the snippets back to the group saying these will be things heard on the wedding night. For instance — “Just rip open the package and see what you got!” Or, “Where in the world will I put that?” And, “I didn’t know that came in green!” Yeah, things like that. It was hilarious. Even though this was fun with the ladies that day, trust me this can even be fun with a group of men gathered around a TV watching a ballgame, too.
This memory came to the surface of my pea picking brain this past week while I was shopping. As I pushed a cart that seemed to be as big as an aircraft carrier up and down the aisles of a Costco, I was privy to snippets of several conversations. I don’t eavesdrop on purpose. But there are voices out there that just carry and my ears sometimes find themselves in the way of sound waves that create some intriguing and sometime outright strange snippets.
If you know the layout of a Costco store you know that one side is food and stuff which I will call the lady’s side and the other side is electronic stuff and tool stuff which I will call the man’s side. The center is clothes and seasonal stuff or the free-for-all section. With the store mapped out you can keep track of us as we picked up these snippets.
On the man’s side we were — well, he was — looking at some light fixtures that would outshine the sun he thought would be kind of cool to put up in the dining room, (not going to happen), when three guys, probably in their mid-20s, walked by, one pushing a cart so they could pick up a toilet from a display on the opposite side of the aisle. They were joking and cutting up when one said, “Well I won a toilet at a party once. But it didn’t work!” See? That must have been some party! As bad as I wanted to hear the rest of that story, we giggled and just continued on.
Back by the bakery, my favorite spot to just stand and sniff, I rolled my landmass of a cart past a man who looked to be about 60 or more. He was standing in front of a display of pies and cookies, by himself, shaking his head and saying to nobody or anybody, “Why don’t they just shoot me instead of tempting me into cardiac arrest with all this sugar and lard.” Ah, I feel your pain, buddy!
Over on the lady’s side as we were walking past pallets piled high with sugar and flour and chocolate chips and — well, you know, all the things dreams are made of. There a woman who apparently couldn’t stand the strain of looking at all those packaged calories and nearly breathlessly she said to her daughter, “Here, here’s some money, go up front and buy us some churros — and hurry back.” I could have given her my two bucks for one too, but we just kept pushing our food-laden 18-wheeler cart on to the checkout line. I didn’t get the churros, but as we left the parking lot I did want to head for the nearest A&W for Papa Burgers!
Snippets are a fun part of life. They seem to come to you just when you need a laugh or a diversion. It doesn’t work to hunt and peck to find snippets — like hunting snipe, at night, in an open field — which, yes, I’ve been invited to do, too. Don’t hunt snippets or snipes. Just sit back and wait for them to come to you.
Trina lives in Eureka, Nevada. Her book ITY BITS is on Kindle. Share with her at itybytrina@yahoo.com.
