If I could celebrate my life using vivid present-tense scenes in small, seemingly, interesting increments spliced together for effect, then others could rejoice and scream Hallelujah JR, you’re the man! Oh wouldn’t that be spectacular! And I’m not talking about using a narrative summary either. Why dramatize my actions when I can just live it in digestible bits and pieces? At least this is how I feel about some of the other folks I’ve met and dealt with in the past. One person in particular is forever etched in my mind:
He’s a prison maintenance worker, a rather large, fat man who usually wears bib overall shorts throughout the winter season. I will always identify him by that one challenging act he did in the not too distant past. In celebration of his life and culture, he decided to show a little extra leg (and underwear) inside the joint. Our warden at the time, an African-American man, disagreed with his actions, or should I say, attire.
“You can’t go to work dressed like that,” he commented.
Our dear prison maintenance man quickly pointed out that it certainly wasn’t a problem for the chaplain, who wore her African robes and African hats throughout the year. “Why can’t I honor my heritage too?” he asked. “Why can’t I share it with others?”
The warden shook his head in disbelief. I’m not sure what he actually said, but I’m sure it went something like this: “Sir, you cannot—let me repeat—you cannot wear a skirt inside a men’s prison.”
The warden’s lack of understanding probably elicited the following rebuttal: “Sir, with all due respect, it’s not a skirt, it’s a kilt.”
9 comments:
Kind of hard to mistake a kilt for a skirt. Maybe more than the inmates need an education in other cultures as well as their own.
mark
A proud Scotsman, of course!
Enjoyed the story and pic. If I remember right that was a leather kilt with all the pockets for his hand tools: hammers, wrenches, pipes, screws, nuts, bolts, screw drivers, wire cutters, electrical testers...I think it was more of an issue of nobody wanting to go through all of his pockets and stuff. Enjoyed the post. That tall class of beer looks like it has been refilled a couple of times. :) MW
i agree with the skirt on this one.
I thought you were allergic to beer?? :)
Is there some kind of "dress" (hee hee) code for the maintenance workers? ;D
Ruth,
As you can tell from the picture, I am obviously having an allergic reaction.
Full leather kilt -- kind of strange. There's some dude I see wearing a most definitely Scottish clan kilt walking down the street about once a week. I guess he just likes it. I expect to hear him break out into "Scotland Forever" one of these days.
The warden probably feared what Scottsmen wear--or don't wear--under their kilt.
He sounds like Willy, from the simpsons. He was always my favorite character on that show.
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