Cinderfella

I think this may have been the title of an old Jerry Lewis movie, so if I haven’t dated myself with “Gimme a head with hair”, I am certainly dating myself now….. but on with the story.

We just came home from a weekend trip to Cape Cod. As I mentioned in my last post, I was invited to the birthday party for the mother of a very old friend, Alli. I spent quite a lot of time at their house when I was young so it is always an honor to be invited to these birthday events.

The Cape is a good 3 1/2 hour drive (4 1/2 with me in the car) so again, we opted to make a weekend out of it. There was plenty for DC to do at the hotel even if the weather did not cooperate – it did, eventually. We arrived on Friday afternoon and on Friday night, we had dinner with Rhoda who flew up from Georgia.

Saturday was a busy day. I met Rhoda and Alli for breakfast. DC and Doug went for their breakfast earlier because DC could not wait until 10:00 to eat breakfast, “second breakfast”, maybe but not first breakfast. They went directly to the indoor pool afterwards. It was nice to be able to spend some time with my friends and catch up without interruptions.

After breakfast DC Doug and I went out for a drive just to see what was around in that area. We came back to the hotel around 1 and I went down to the banquet room to help set up for the party. We finished about 4.

Back in the room, it was almost time for me to start getting ready for the party. DC and Doug were busy making plans to go to the bookstore (yes, DC did spot a Barnes and Noble while we were out earlier) and out to dinner.

Doug is not one for big parties like this and DC, as much as he loves to dance and eat, would not have made it through the whole thing. As I could almost guarantee there would be no wings on the menu he was happy to go to dinner with Doug. So I was attending the party with Rhoda.

Needless to say, I did not see a lot of DC on Saturday.

At about 11:30, the party-goers were starting to thin out. Under direct orders from the birthday girl, I went back to the room to bring DC down to the party for a visit. There was no doubt that he would be awake. He wouldn’t go to sleep before I came back and I figured that Doug probably needed a break from “Mom is coming back soon?”.

He had a good time. He visited the cupcake mountain and the candy buffet and had a Shirley Temple with Mom. He danced for quite a while, by himself and with two beautiful ladies.



When the party was over and DC and I were walking back to the room, he started reciting a story. This was nothing new, he loves books and stories and knows almost all of his stories by heart. He did spot the “Ballroom” sign on his way into the party, so I knew there would be more than one Cinderella reference on the way back to the room. He started his scripting (or what I thought would be scripting) and I realized that this was different.
Speaking very clearly, like a narrator, he said:

Once upon a time –
The best boy in the whole world came to the ball.
and noooooo one knew who he was.
He ate cakes
He ate candy
He ate golden jellybeans
and
danced
and danced
all night.”

After he told this “story” a second time, I said “Oh No! Should we go back to look for your shoe?”

“No”, he laughed and called me silly.

Here’s the thing though…. as many books and stories as I’ve heard him recite over the years, he never veers away from the original stories. They are told as they are – and in his mind, as they should be. As much as he loves his stories, his books and movies, he never relates them to his life or himself.

He not only altered the original story, but he altered it to include himself….

and………….

he got the joke…..