PanningForGold

My parental units have just celebrated their 53 wedding anniversary.  Yup the big 53!  I called to wish them a happy anniversary.  Calling my parents is a really good way to get fodder for this blog.  What follows is a story told to me by my father.  Before I get an earful, I do take responsibility for poetic license, although I can assure you this rendering is not far from the truth.

Both my Mother and Father were coming home from a shopping trip.  They were waiting for the elevator in the lobby of their condo and something happened of which I can’t remember because as my father was telling the story my dog was bringing me toy after toy to get my attention.  Anyway somehow in the lobby, in front of the elevator, my parents got separated. (I know what you are thinking, but no this is not be considered unusual in my family)  My father rode up alone.  Went into the apartment waited around a bit and went back to the elevator to help my mother with the bags.  The elevator doors open my mother was not to be found.  He waited a little longer, doors opened again and she was still not there.  My father went back to the apartment to close the door then headed down to the lobby of course she wasn’t there either.  “Perhaps” he must have thought to himself, “They crossed paths” so up to the 7^th floor he went, no sign of my mother.  He went to the apartment, still no sign.  He went back to the lobby, nothing, nada, zip.  At this point, other people in a similar situation would start to worry.  But not my father, remember they have been together 53 years, he knows better.  My father remembers the time my mother got lost in Jackson Hole Wyoming.  She went to the corner to get some food.  At the time you could walk around the entire town in 30 minutes, there were a handful of hotels.  My mother stopped a police officer to ask where the Crazy Horse Hotel is.  The Officer informed her there was no hotel, they argued about it, the officer born and raised in Jackson Hole was pretty sure he knew that there wasn’t.  He was right because we were staying at the PONY EXPRESS HOTEL!  But in my mother’s defense, in our family there is virtually no difference between a crazy horse and a pony express.  The officer should have known better.

Back to the story at hand, thanks to the advent of modern technology my father remembers he has a cell phone, and by mere coincidence so does my mother.  Is it on? Does it have battery life left?  Does she have it on her?  This leads into another story for another time suffice it to say that the chances are that any of the above questions is going to have a negative answer.   In this instance all is good and my mother answers:

Father: Where are you?

Mother: At the elevator waiting for you to help me with the bags. Where are you?

Father: At the elevator waiting to help you with the bags.

My father at this point is back on their floor figuring my mother is now waiting in the lobby.  So he goes back down, of course she was not there. He calls her again:

Father:  Now where are you?

Mother: Waiting for you at the elevator, where are you?

Sounding familiar?

Father:  I’m in the lobby in front of the elevator and I can’t find you.

Mother: No, I am on our floor.

Father: I just came from there and couldn’t find you.

Mother: I’m standing on our floor in front of the elevators.

Father: Okay I’ll be up in a minute.

And once again my father goes up stairs and there is no sign of my mother and once again calls her.

Father:  I am at the elevator and you are not here.

Mother: Yes I am.

Father: Where?

Mother: In front of the elevator.

Father: What floor?

Mother:  (pause, laughter). Sixth

Father: (Laughter) we live on the Seventh.

Mother: Probably a good thing I didn’t try to get into the apartment at the end of the hall.