Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Are you kidding me!?


One summer evening, my parents, 9 year old brother, and I, age10, looked heavenward and watched in awe as a ten-inch thick, pure-white, puffy cloud (about the size of a child's small swimming pool) floated over our city neighborhood like a hot air balloon. It slowly descended and landed on the gravel lot where the moving trucks parked at night. Four or five neighbors gathered. Everyone moved cautiously toward it, curious. The things I heard that made no sense at all to me. And my thoughts:

"It's  a real cloud that landed." Then wouldn't it be fog?

"No, that's impossible." That's right! So what is it?

"It's a cloud of insect spray from the mosquito truck." Are you kidding me!?

"Back away. It's probably poisonous. Don't breathe. Cover your nose."  Don't breathe?

"It's heavenly. It's an angel." Are you kidding me!? No facial features or wings?

"It could be a U.F.O. Don't touch it." Are you kidding me? From outer space here to pick up all of you crazies?

"The communists probably launched it like that Sputnik." Who and what the heck are communists? Sputnik was that spiky turquoise blue ball of bubble gum I bought at the candy store.

"Someone get me a stick so I can poke it." Someone is going to get contaminated. Hold your breath.

"Aw, it's foam, just a big cloud of soap foam!" Are you kidding me!? You big bunch of grown up dummies.

And so, it was... a huge escaped blob of soap suds foam that had drifted from the Proctor & Gamble plant located less than a mile away.

But oh, the imaginations were running wild that evening.

10 comments:

River said...

A huge blob of soap suds? I wouldn't have thought that would flat very far.
I like all the other possibilities people thought.

Sioux Roslawski said...

If it had happened recently, you might have thought it was a cloud of methane gas, since Bill had just eaten some bratwurst...

Not really kidding, Bill. ;)

Connie said...

Ha! Imaginations gone wild! Oh well, it provided a bit of entertainment for a little while.

BB said...

Hi Linda...It's been awhile. Loved this post. Your sense of humor is great. As soon as I read 'poke it with a stick' I thought of the opening of "The Blob" with Steve McQueen. hahaha. Glad I popped in.

Anonymous said...

That? Is an awesome story:-). aliens or angels would have been my guess too

Lisa Ricard Claro said...

Our imaginations are wondrous things! Long ago when my husband and I lived in Las Vegas we had gone to Red Rock Canyon (it's all condos now!) to hike. On our way back we saw a huge--and I mean HUGE--orange disk hovering over the mountain. We, and about 5 or 6 other cars stopped and got out to stare at it. After about 15 minutes we realized . . . it was the moon!

Pat Wahler said...

That reminds me of a scene from a Doris Day movie, The Thrill of It All. In a fury, James Garner kicks boxes of soap suds into their backyard pool. The next morning the yard is covered with suds (that's suds, not spuds) All sorts of sudsy shapes are floating around. Love that movie!

Pat
Critter Alley

Val said...

You can't go wrong, poking something with a stick. It's part of the investigative process.

Shelly said...

What a way to ignite the imagination. I didn't predict the ending at all~

Alice said...

It's a bird, it's a plain, it's a bubble. It's fun to let your imagination soar!