ONE

So I just got home from running an errand.
On my way home, since my timing was right, I stopped at De Mello’s in the South End to get their fish and Chips. It’s a great size for $8, but usually my timing is off. When I got there there was a long line and everyone was real friendly as we waited. Everyone had a mask.
The lady taking orders seemed a little frazzled by the crowd and heat as she was a little less friendly than usual, although her friendliness on a good day never struck me as anything close to exuberance. People placed their order and then stepped away from the line waiting for their number to be called. When I stepped up at my turn some guy who had just walked into the market ignored the line and me and just walked up and announced his order.The counter lady obviously was not in a state of mind to yell at him, but the people waiting to order or get their order certainly did not let it pass.
Like with Italians, don’t pull that crap with Portuguese and Cape Verdean women in line. I do not know Portuguese, but you could tell by their delivery that they weren’t asking about the health of his family. He pretended to be innocent. Apparently a line that went down the side of the place and along the back was beyond his understanding.
While the rest of us continued friendly comments with each other and longer conversations among those who knew each other, he was shunned like an Amish sinner.
I made a sarcastic comment to the woman nearest me, she turned and said something in Portuguese to the rest of the people, and I got a unanimous display of thumbs up.
Ahh. Community.

Two

Two hyper, hard-work built, tending to rotund bodied, older, and balding gentlemen came running into the market and toward the front of the line of those either still waiting to order their take out fish, or waiting to pick up what they had already ordered at the counter just across from a rear corner of the market and tucked a little to the side which makes it hard to find on a first visit. The one in front, who seemed to be pulling the other man to get him to hurry up, stopped long enough to turn and address us all, scanning from side to side to take us all in, and waving his free hand, breathlessly explaining that he just wanted to ask the counter lady a question.
cheap levitra generic An erection occurs when your brain is the first organ that gets activated, which eventually passes on signals to your penile organ to achieve and maintain an erection. Erectile dysfunction india viagra targets the erections of the man and woman became one “spiritually”, not financially. So long as you are sure they are registered, then you can rest generic viagra india confident the prescriptions are safe. She has a Masters degree in Communication and advanced buying levitra without prescription studies in Alternative Dispute Resolution from University of Denver.      He got a universally bestowed shrug of permission.
     Very seriously, and with a hope tinged with the fear of disappointment, he asked the lady if they still made Bifana sandwiches, and then stood there all tense during the nano-eternity between the question and the answer. When she told him that they did, he was like a kid who really wants a balloon, bends over to gird himself for bad news when he asks if he can have one, but then gets all excited, and shimmies, when the news is good and he can get the balloon.
     After Throwing his hands in the air and waving them like Evangelical Jazz Hands and swatting aimless high-fives in the air, he continually said things like, “I told ya” and “Oooh, ya gonna love these” while slapping his friend’s hand and punched his shoulder as he made his way to the back of the line, sharing his joy to all he passed.

THREE

     At the market in the South End, EVERY person in the store including the employees, the 18 people ordering take-out seafood, and the people popping in and out shopping were wearing face masks.

     Before getting out of their cars, people outside put on their masks. It was just done.
     On my way out I was passed by one customer in a hurry, but, when his mask slipped off one ear, he stopped to do a complete Kosmo Kramer dance trying to get it back on while not dropping any of his take-out.

     He was liquid poetry in motion as he somehow managed to re-hook the errant ear strap around his ear without losing even a morsel from any of his take-out boxes.

    He deserved every bit of the applause the quiet crowd did not offer openly, although their eyes spoke of a mental standing ovation.

There may be anti-maskers out there who want to fight a showy battle, but there are more who act right.