#1 grandpa

This post continues the theme from my last Bertucci experience - funny ignorant people. Fridays are usually celebrated in my department with a long lunch out on the town. Yesterday, we drove out to Cathy's, (their website is a prime example of obnoxiously gratuitous use of flash) a catering place tucked away in a small South Jersey town called Cinnaminson.

The seating area was filled with elderly white people for some reason. We wait for a table. Old people check us out and a few of their eyes fixate on me - and not in a lovingly way. I scan the room and calculate that I'm the only person of color in the joint...which reminds me that I'm the only person of color in my entourage and the only person of color in my department ... which explains why I'm attracting curious stares in a joint that I would never have picked on my own.

So we finally sit down and conversate. I turn my head and catch this old man in a sweatshirt that says "#1 Grandpa" blatantly staring at me for an eternity with his gourmet sandwich stuck in his hand. I look around to check if there's anything else visually compelling around me...but no, just me. I'm yelling in my head (like Elaine stuck in the subway train in that Seinfeld episode), "F*ck you lookin' at? You never seen my kind before? Bring the sandwich up to your mouth and chew, #1 Grandpa!" I almost laughed looking at him. Pure comedy.

Obviously this isn't blatant case of racism. There were no nooses, confederate flags or racial epithets thrown around. And again these situations are nothing new to me. But its enough to remind me that white people will never understand how it feels to be singled out and stared at in a funny way. They can walk around almost anywhere and be carefree. When I was younger, I would get anxious about these situations. But now the humor of it all is almost empowering. So, I returned to the conversation at my table where my coworkers were blissfully complaining about their comfortably wonderful lives. In case you were wondering, the sandwiches were delcious!

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