From: JaxInCalifornia@aol.com
Date: Mon Feb 25 2002 - 23:32:32 PST
So I was downtown today at Collier Hardware looking for a bungee cord for a mirror for my Volvo-Valp... long story, don't ask.
Anyway, I walk out of the store and I'm fixing the bungee to my mirror and I notice a "classic" hippy girl in her 20s walking my way, thin, shapely, halter top, long brown hair, wearing a sarong dress and grower sandals, not that I really noticed her all that much... yeah, ok I did. But, I am not supposed, hey I'm 49.. uh, + 5 and looking more like "Hank Hill" everyday... thats "Benny Hill" if you are in the UK.
Anyway, she stops right behind me where I can't see her and I just keep fiddling with the mirror, until she moves into view about 3 feet away and says, "Why do you own that?" (Why do I own that???) I knew this was coming, well, that something was coming, but this line was a first. She sort of sang it as she said it and added a cheesy grin at the end, like my MV was so incredibly offensive how could I live with myself knowing what an affront to the peace loving peoples it was in our commune... I mean our community.
I said, huh? But, I heard her fine, I was just cleverly trying to buy time for a verbal reparte that was about to start. This is where she tells me how the military sucks and kills things and then I try not to get mad while I explain about my vehicle's historical significance, maybe talk about patriotism and such...see I been there done that a lot in this college town. But I tried something new, "Oh, you mean my Volvo?," I said as my brain finally engaged. This absolutely stopped her cold, like a deer in the headlights! "This is a Volvo?" Her voice went up about 3 octaves as she said Volvo. "Yep, in fact it's really more like a Volvo station wagon," I said station wagon instead of troop carrier, taking a slight liberty with the details.
It worked. She was stunned. I realized I totally disarmed what was about to be a really good arguement.
(Note..in my part of the world, the Volvo is the epitimy of a politically correct vehicle, if such a thing could exist, but the Volvo station wagon, hey now that is P.C. on steroids... every Rasta hippey with 6 dogs owns one here) And before she could recover from the shock, I added, because it's all wheel drive I use it to gather plant samples in the woods and sometimes we haul the kids to upper creek (a popular swiming hole for hippies)... this was the coup d'gras, (sp?). A real gotcha.. she had no where to go now, so she just stared at it for a moment and said, "Wow, that's really cool, it looks so military though?" Yeah, I know, just think of it as beating swords into plow shares." Am I good or what? I'm on a roll now! "That's so awesome she said... wow (that's two wows in a row now) that is really, really cool!" I was going to tell her it ran on recycled diesel fumes too, but then why push my luck? She was happy and I had my mirror fixed, so I let well enough alone. As she left we both waved bye
.. I got the peace wave of course.
Jack
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