Mingling with the Townsfolk

Yesterday, the girls and I walked into town to browse the market and do some errands. While taking a break by the fountain, I had a bizarrely revealing conversation with one of Horsham's residents.

The woman, who was at least in her late 80's, sat next to me on a bench where I was feeding Penny a bottle. She immediately began recounting how she nearly was run over by an ambulance, then she was distracted by the milk in Penny's bottle.

Old Lady: What kind of milk do you feed him? (Penny was wearing green.)

Annie: Usually I nurse her, but sometimes I feed her this powdered formula I get from the supermarket.

Old Lady: Well, I just couldn't make any milk for my babies!  It didn't come!

Annie (sympathetic, yet cautious. Worried this could get weird): Ahhh. Yeah. That's...tough.

Old Lady: But they said I have the best nipples!

Annie's Brain: (Yep, this got weird.)

Old Lady: You know, I didn't know some nipples were better than others, but they are!

Annie's Brain: (Please stop saying 'nipples')

Annie: hmm

Annie's Brain: (Sorry, Annie, I've got nothing more than 'hmm' as a response to that.)

Old Lady: Sadie, who shared a room with me in the hospital, well, she had inverted nipples and the baby just couldn't do much with those! (Every sentence was said in exclamation and amazement.)

Annie' Brain: (Oh please no. Let's not bring Sadie and her inverted nipples into this.)

Annie: Oh.

Old Lady: But Sadie said to me, 'Your nipples are wonderful!'

Annie's Brain: (How can Sadie know so much about your nipples? Dang--I wish I'd never had to ask myself that question because now I have to think about the answer!)

Old Lady went on to tell me all about how and what she fed her baby. I'm not a great conversationalist to begin with, but the most I could muster in this conversation was nodding and 'oh' and 'uh huh'. That was okay, though, because she couldn't really hear what I was saying anyway. Then suddenly she asked what the girls were named. I told her Penelope and Esmé. Surprisingly, she seemed to have heard of the name 'Esmé' before, unlike most people who look at me like I just made it up. "Ah" she said, "Esmé, yes, that's nice."

Then she left.

Then she came walking back.

Old Lady: You know what name I heard the other day? Phoebe! Now that's an old one too, isn't it?


Annie's Brain: (Has she been watching re-runs of FRIENDS?)

So even though I learned way more about her (and Sadie) than I ever wanted to know, the lady was sweet and it was nice of her to talk to me. Next time, I'll choose the topic, though.