The Shrimp Story
The shrimp story, my friend Julie cringes every time I tell it. I don’t know why, I think it’s endearing.
Julie was still in school and I had just graduated and was working in the IT department of SmithKline Beecham Laboratories in Tampa. I worked from 4pm to midnight which really put a cramp on my social activities. Being the good friend that Julie is, she organized a weekly lunch on Thursdays and we would meet at a different restaurant each week and have lunch and talk and talk and talk.
Neither one of us had much money at the time and we would furnish most of our wardrobe from thrift stores. Florida has the best thrift stores of any state in the country. So many old people move down to Florida and eventually die and their family gives away all of their cool clothes from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. We would usually come out of the store with armfuls of cocktail dresses, cowboy boots, aprons and vintage hats.
One Thursday we hit the Salvation Army as usual before eating lunch. We sifted through piles of old clothes and shoes, made our purchases and we were off to eat. We were near the water and decided to try a seafood restaurant. I ordered a 21 piece shrimp dinner with hushpuppies and went to the restroom to wash my hands before eating. My hands were filthy from touching all of the old musty clothes and shoes and I went into a diatribe of how I like to have clean hands before eating. I noticed Julie didn’t wash her hands, but figured that’s her own choice.
Several minutes later the food came out and Julie said “that doesn’t look like 21 pieces of shrimp” and proceeded to touch every one of my shrimp as she counted them. She even moved the hushpuppies out of the way to count the shrimp hiding under them. Satisfied with her tally she reported that yes there were 21 shrimp on my plate and looked up at me and realized her faux pas. I had always sided with Goofus in the old Highlights magazine, but suddenly felt uncomfortably like Gallant. We laughed and I think I even ate my lunch, all 21 shrimp.
You’d be amazed how often the story comes up in conversation and Julie has resigned herself to the fact that I will go on telling the shrimp story for the rest of our lives.