In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Hear No Evil.”
Tell us about a conversation you couldn’t help but overhear and wish you hadn’t.
I usually use Southwest Airlines from the Washington DC area to fly west, and they’er connecting hub is located at Chicago’s Midway Airport and I always had at least an hour layover. So, I had become accustomed to the annoying practice of people talking aloud for everyone to hear their private conversation no matter how much detail they want the world to know.
On one flight due to the usual summer thunderstorm, the one hour layover turned into five. So I grab an open seat, and it happened to be behind a seventy-five year old grand-mother from Salina Kansas. She was traveling with her twelve year old grand-daughter and the grand-daughter’s twelve year old friend. They were your typical pre-teen, talkative and to quote a phrase from a “Seinfeld Show.” they were loud talkers without a filter. Myself and several other passengers and their small children listened to the two girls discuss the details of their vacation along with the sites they visited in Washington DC.
The grand-mothers earlier conversation with her grand-daughter, she told the two to speak up because of her hearing aid, which every passenger in the waiting realized grandmother was fortunate. The talkative and fidgety pre-teens eventually left the passenger waiting area to walk around sharing they’er discussion with others. Their movement brought delight to our passenger area.
However, they soon returned but they did not recognize the grand-mother had walked away for something to eat. The grand-mother placed her carry-on bag in her seat, to save it and the two children did not secure their seats when they left, and their seats were taken. It was not my lucky day as the girls continued talking and two people to my right gave their seat up to the two the girls.
The two pre-teens’s conversation drifted to a boy in their home town of Salina Kansas, name Kenneth, who the grand-daughter liked enough to allow him to be the recipient of her first kiss. Many of the adults listening to this conversation smiled, with delight until she said she was going to allow Kenneth to touch her breast. As the father of a ten year old daughter at the time, the innocence of a first kiss escalating to touch body parts raised eyebrows of all the adults.
The girls were attempting to whisper, when their conversation went from touching to a possible sexual encounter, when the grand daughter explained the use and application of a diaphragm to her friend. After I finished blinking my eyes to what I was hearing, I raised up in my seat as did several adult passengers in shock.
As a father, I began leaning to my right to impart some words of wisdom, when suddenly the grandmother turned around, tapped her grand daughter on her shoulder scaring the two to scream aloud and calmly stated the following.
“I’m glad you are discussing your first kiss, but if you and Kenneth touch any part of your body other than your hands to hold in the church, I will know about it. I know Kenneth’s parents, and grandparents on both sides, now you two stop talking.” The stern and direct tone in the grand-mothers voice captured my attention and that of several passengers as well as we all smiled with delight.
The girls eyes filled with fear, and shocked as the grandmother scolded the two after which they quietly sat for the next two hours without a word said.
Later on as we gather in line to board the plane, I smile at the grandmother and told her, she will receive a great Christmas gift for this adventure. She smirked and said, “heck, I’m getting a two week Caribbean Cruise in September, and since my husband claimed he was too sick for this trip, my kitchen will be remodeled upon my return from my cruise and I’m still getting Christmas Gifts.”
This grand-mother heard some evil and used wisdom and smarts to quiet two children and hopefully prevent a preteen sexual encounter. Grand-mothers rule and rock baby!
Leave a Reply