A five-member group of women in their 70s, teasingly self-named “The Yak-Yaks,” meets in Abbie’s condo living room, in their woodsy California housing development. The cozy, carpeted, and brightly lit room has wall surfaces filled with abstract landscape paintings, pottery people, woven baskets. A square glass coffee table is heaped with food goodies. Something gooey and chocolate, always; chips, cut celery, hummus, and in season fruits, usually.
Abbie’s husband, her childhood sweetheart, has MS, is in a nursing home and hallucinates in his wheelchair. She visits him every day and is already grieving his absence.
On this evening Abbie had just come back from a tour to The National Memorial to Peace & Justice in Montgomery Alabama, a site and monument that recognizes 4,300 lynchings in the United States. She returned shaken with grief and remorse.
Abbie passed her iPhone around showing photos of the site. Abbie asked Bea to enlarge one photo and read it aloud. As Bea started to read, her throat choked closed, and she had to press through reading it, pausing after each line to manage speaking. These were the words engraved on a marble slab:
For the hanged and beaten,
For the shot, drowned and burned,
For the tortured, tormented, and terrorized,
For those abandoned by the rule of law.
We will remember.
With hope because hopelessness is the enemy of justice,
With courage because peace requires bravery,
With persistence because justice is a constant struggle
With faith because we shall overcome.
When Bea had finished reading the quotation on the stone, all five women had tears in their eyes. There was a silence that spoke an anguished groan. A long, long silence. Then Bea asked Abbie if she could have a copy of the photo. Abbie said sure. They all wanted a copy.
After the wave of sadness had passed, Abbie said, “Right after Montgomery, I went back to my Pennsylvania hometown—population 2,000 — for the funeral of an old friend’s husband. A woman friend told me this joke.” She smiles, thinking of it. “Notice how different it would be if a man told it.”
She continues, “Here it is:”
A woman goes to a new dentist. She’s seated in the dentist’s chair and leans forward for the assistant to fasten the paper bib behind her. She notices the dentist’s diploma on the wall in front of her. The dentist’s name, Richard Browne, seems somehow familiar to her. She’s trying to piece together where she might have known him. Just as the assistant dips her chair backwards, something dawns on the woman. She’s excited with her revelation.
When the dentist comes into the room to greet her, she asks, ‘Did you go to Conestoga High School?’
‘Yes,’ he replies.
‘Did you take a French class in 1956?’
‘Yes’
‘Oh, my gosh! We were in class together!’
Dr. Browne looks at her, perplexed…,’You were my teacher?’”
“Uuuuuuuuuuuuuu”, everyone groans as they get the insult to the aging female patient.
When the laughter dies down, Cici says, “That reminds me of a new knock-knock joke I heard.” She turns to Dee, “Knock, knock.”
Dee says, “Who’s there?’”
“Little old lady,” says Cici.
Dee says, “Little old lady, who?”
Cici tries to keep a straight face. “Oh, I didn’t know you could yodel.”
‘Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.” More groans. Two lean over, head in hand. Somebody asks, “Where did you hear that?” Cici talks through laughter, “I’m old too. I don’t remember.” Laughter builds and settles.
Essie, still sitting, bounces up and down on her couch cushion, says, “Now I have one.” General groaning ensues.
An Old Man and Old Woman sit in a booth at Denny’s, opposite each other. He eats— ever so slowly—his order of coke, hamburger, and French fries. The Woman sits, waiting patiently as he eats. No conversation. A Man at the counter notices this silent pair and wonders about them. The Old Man finishes everything and orders a slice of apple pie with vanilla ice cream. The Old Woman again, sits waiting, quietly and patiently.
The Counterman worries about the woman who, he thinks, is being shortchanged. He walks over and says to them both, “I’m sorry; I don’t want to intrude.” Then turning to the woman, says, “I’d like to buy you something to eat.”
The Woman shakes her head, lips tight, says, “No thank you, I’m fine.”
Counterman sits back down at the counter and sneaks a peek at them out of the corner of his eyes. The Old Man orders yet another hamburger, fries, and coke. The Old Woman, again, sits patiently waiting.
The Counterman can stand it no longer and goes back to their booth.
He turns to the Old Woman, hands raised to the heavens, “What in the world are you waiting for!?!”
“His teeth.”
Even louder groaning. “Double uuuuuuuuuuuuu’s, Oh, gross! and Yuck!” fill the living room.
General laughter. When they recover Bea says, “This is a good time for me to go home to fully recover.” (Bea has been remarried – after a divorce years ago- for five years. She is the only one with a partner living with her.)
They gather in the center of the living room for goodbye hugs and leave, looking forward to their next time together.