I have a hilarious Christmas related anecdote, what better day for publishing it than Christmas day? Enjoy…
So I’m sitting there at the one of the Las Vegas DMV locations. Sitting there for forever as I did not sign in via text ahead of time, but walked in the door the moment it opened.
I had a lot of time on my hands to kill, and figuring it to be good policy and knowing I’d get a text when it was my turn at a booth I decided to wait outside.
It’s still winter time, if you can even call anything in Vegas that, and my pale white self found the one bench in shade to sit in.
I killed a couple hours in the shade on that bench. I can not stress enough that it was at points the only shaded bench. I felt no urge to burn.
Sitting there killing time I made small talk with those around me, and people watched.
Some Filipino kid a few years older than me and I talked high school wrestling since we had that in common. He grew up in the Bay Area, and his school ran hill sprints outside to start practice. I told him I was jealous, and that his weight cutting in Cali winter must’ve been a breeze, that I was in New England, and that our running was indoors in the halls and that god forsaken stairwell. The two of us joked around calling which teens passed their license tests and which didn’t from our vantage point near the entrance based on ecstatic and depressed faces.
Eventually he got texted to a booth. He had been in LV long enough to know not to check in in person.
So I was back to sitting silently, high noon, but shaded if barely.
Looking back I was wearing a red t-shirt which likely added to the effect.
I’m a red bearded white man. It was early in the year. Christmas was not long past.
This Mexican family walks out. Tall light skinned dad holding a 1 year old, his wife, light brown skin, light brown hair, taller as well. A daughter about 6 years old (light brown skin, jet black hair, she looked more Hispanic than either parent) running ahead of them…seemingly straight towards me.
She smiles. Then sits about 2 feet from me on the almost empty bench. I was completely to the right end of it, there was 10 feet of open space.
I look over acknowledging that she’s there, wondering why so close, and she looks up at me and smiles…
Immediately to start scooting closer and closer to me not stopping until seated hip to hip against me. I look over at her father (maybe 10 yards away) with an expression like “I’m not doing anything, she sat there, and moved this close”.
The dad comes up to me, apologizes, saying he’s never seen her act like this to a stranger and that he’s sorry she bothered me, I laughed, telling him she wasn’t bothering me, and that whatever she was thinking my funny to me too.
He looks at her and goes “Come on Maria, it’s time to go home”.
She looks at him, still in contact with me (hip to hip), and goes “Do we have to?”
The dad and I both kinda shrugging our shoulders to each other about the oddity of this all, and he replys “Yeah”.
She seems saddened and goes “Can I stay?”
“No, Maria. We have to go home, it’s lunch time aren’t you hungry?”
“Yeah, but can I stay?”
“No, lets go home”
She looks really saddened and goes “I want to sit next to him!” in a burst of childhood truthful innocence, the dad and I both look at each other, shrugging our shoulders again, laughing. Then the family leaves.
As they’re walking she smiles at me and waves goodbye.
The dad and I both were to a degree dumbfounded. Why did little Maria want to sit next to me so badly? Soon after it dawned on me…
- Christmas was only about a month past.
- Christmas specials play around Christmas.
- Little kids watch Chrismas specials.
- Young Santa has red hair and a red beard.
- Santa weards red.
- I was wearing a red t-shirt.
- I have a red beard, and because of my often buzz cut some people think I may be a redhead.
I think that little girl was psyched to run into Santa off season while going about errands with her family. An otherwise boring DMV trip ended with an impromptu opportunity to interact with Young Santa Claus.
Life gives endless stories.
-J