Memory Monday

“Songs and smells will bring you back to a moment in time more than anything else."  Emily Giffin

Back to the old rooming house and my job in Reno...I am working at a Penney's as a sales clerk...a big first for me, but a great experience! I met several people for whom this was a career choice. I remember there was also this floor manager, a guy, of course. All the career women practically bowed down when he came around. This was early 1960's when women didn't have a whole lot of say yet in the workings of the world. Rumblings of Women's Lib were just a faint distant echo. I was never too impressed with "power" but even without my bowing down, I did become one of his top sales gals...my charm and wit! (She says modestly!) So he kind of had to tolerate me and didn't give me too much static.

(A little aside...I have seen all my life that men can only diminish women if women let them...if women act like an equal, they are most likely treated as such. It is the demure, eyes down women who get treated like second class citizens!) Now that I got that off my chest....obviously he was not a favorite of mine. He was pretty young but "getting ahead"! I wonder what ever happened to him.)

Anyway, we all had Thanksgiving Day off. Dick and I had been invited to the home of one of his supervisors from the base. She was a civilian who had been military...a strong woman.... she and her husband had a lovely home in the hills of Reno. They didn't have any children so they made a habit of "adopting" some of the guys who weren't able to get home for the holidays. Only one thing marred the experience for me. They had this huge gray cat...having not really been around cats too much, (we were more dog people) I wasn't sure how to greet this big guy! And, for some reason, some cats make me sneeze and wheeze like crazy.

Big Gray Cat

     This obviously is not the same cat because this was 54 years ago. Of course, the cat came around me, sensing that I was probably not wanting him to, as I sat quietly sipping my wine before dinner.  Trying to be polite, I did as one does when meeting new dogs.  I held my hand out, palm down for him to sniff me. I thought it would be the way to greet a cat too.  Well, that furry SOB  didn't sniff me!  He reacted with a lightening slash and tore a slit in the end of my finger!  I didn't want to say anything because our hosts seemed to think the world of the beast! So I excused myself to the bathroom where I ran cold water over my wound trying to stanch the blood!  It finally did slow down; I bound it up in a couple of tissues, and went out to dinner, keeping my wounded hand concealed whenever possible. Then, of course, I began to have an allergic reaction, sneezing and wheezing, to the point we had to excuse ourselves!  I told Dick on the way home what had happened and he was all sympathy but thought I should have spoken up.  Well, I said I hadn't wanted to ruin their hospitality, which, of course, I had done anyway.

      Looking back on the experience, the cat probably could smell Dagmar on me and his fury wasn't at me but at the scent of my beloved dog!