We were out-of-gas and slow leak tire dying when we pulled over. Turned out the Convoy to Chattanooga was also more of a whale almost beached and needing to be churned from a cold start too. We were setting on the side of the highway for three or four days. Some of the mama's seeing off wound up pulling in behind us. We just stayed in place, a longer and longer line of well-wishing and support stacked up.
"My son!!!" A woman exclaimed to a worker at Hardees. "Y'all want some balloons???"
"Hell yeah!"
She plunked the bag of balloons on the counter next to a sack of plain hamburgers. "You'n's will have to take 'em to the florist and get them blown up."
"And where is that at?" The worker drew a little map. "We'll get these off the ground and take a pitcher for ya." The worker grinned.
Our line just about doubled when a mountain chapter of MADD brought more'n halfa them still drunk some of the girls joining, and married, and otherwise part of our pile of wild things. Bitten off fingernails, layers of tee-shirts and sweatshirts, boots hanging on side mirrors....the MADD "parents" gave sets of keys to Jeep People who'd been running between mentors and us. "You gonna need a ride back Mattie?" She left one beer a piece from a tore open twelve pack on the hood of each vehicle with a drunk person in it. "It'll be piss hot or hotter if they go to drink it. Here's hopin' they learn about kissing the devil," she pulled the sticker tab off a pineapple juice, and put a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Let's go. It'll be time to stir the chili."
At the Flower Store one lady sent flowers to a family who'd already lost someone in action. My friend told, "We've got some too."
"Who's your "we" dear?"
"My name's Janelle and we're mostly Jewish."
The lady bit her lip hard and focused on the single stems in a little cooler with a hum in it's bottom. "I should get one for each of the Moms. You think yellow?"
While they decided on that I asked if they were hiring. Without a lot of detail or opinion about the great big picture, the florist hintimated business been slow. But I'll keep your name and number.
Each time we went back to the line of cars, there were more. And the woman with the embroidery hoop had cut her cross-stitch fabric into little squares so people could sew patches. "How come you like sewing so much?" A tween girl asked as she rolled her finger up in her hair and chewed on a stick of gum. "Well honey, it's my thang." The girl watched as the needle deftly formed an edge on her patch. Mountains and sunshine. "You want I could sew a heart on there?!" The girl smiled but said, "No thank you. I'm in love with my Daddy." She helped hold the patch on her chest as the sewing lady pinned it with a safety pin. "How come you got no fingernails?" She asked a woman propped against the vehicle. "I gots fingernails hon. Been thirty-seven pair since I started on this USO tour." The girl asked, "What's a USO? Like a flying saucer?"
"Only when we're parachutin' in!" The woman picked one of the nail polishes from a pursebag full of 'em. "Ever hear a song you like on the radio Shug?" The girl thought about it and slowly nodded. "Chances are somebody in the USO thought it up and put it to music."
"Really?"
"Quite the group they are. My sister and her friends!" The sewing lady reached into a pocket of a different purse and took out a brochure about them. "Surprised they don't have Bob Hope on there," she said. "Oh they did in my day. Oh honey, they did."
After the youngest girl had walked off I asked, "So, did it come to blows?"
"We kept it above board."
"Thought she was gonna get tackled. That Russian woman who wanted to keep the parachute."
"That would've been dicey if she wasn't the Donald's woman."
"Oh was she there too?"
"Yes. Not the one who fah-messed up her hips on landing. That one's gotta rest for a day or two."
"I bet."
"Fact, maybe I'll go do her nails. She'll like that. And can you make a patch with seven parachutes on it?"
"Just one?"
"For now."
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