Saturday evening tunes: Walk right in

So this afternoon, I was walking right in through my local mega-grocery and there, outside their jewelry boutique, sat a lovely young woman in a long blue sequined gown with a pageant sash, next to a dapper fellow playing lounge piano. I nodded at them on the way in, and they nodded pleasantly back at me. A few minutes later, I was on my way back out, nodded again, and realized that the pianist was playing "White Christmas."

A person with more self-control and perspective than I apparently have would have kept walking – and a person who'd never been a pageant winner but who'd paid his dues as a lounge pianist back in the day would certainly have kept his mouth shut – but apparently I didn't learn those lessons and it's five days until Thanksgiving and I have my narrow but intense issues with Christmas songs anyway, so I went there:

Seriously, I said, it's too early for Christmas songs. You should be playing Thanksgiving songs.

He gave me the same look I would have given someone like me, back in the day, and said, Can you sing any Thanksgiving songs?

A long and awkward pause followed, and I made my sheepish exit.

Wish I'd remembered this: