Musings about Tomaine Til’ and Dinner Out

Let’s muse over lemonade and hazelnut cake.

I am coming out of the longest three-day weekend Camp Run-A-Pup ever suffered through. Bronchitis, rain, thunder, lightening, the mysterious woozle and a challenging camper that had me beating my chest and yelling, “Give me strength.” However, by Tuesday, my life regained its balance, and I looked in the mirror and thought, “Oh My God, I look like Tomaine Till.”

Here, have a piece of Hazelnut cake, and I will tell you about Tomaine Til…

When I was a dumb little kid growing up and riding horses in the West Texas town of El Paso, there was a tiny dump of a hamburger place on the way home from the barn where we boarded our horses. The women who owned it had straight greasy gray hair, smoky breath, and was always a mess with catsup and mustard stains on her clothes. Her nails were bitten down and ragged. She did not wear plastic gloves to make burgers. She did, however, make the best hamburger in the world. The story goes that one morning after riding, my mom and her girlfriend stopped in for a burger on their way home from the barn. Now, my mom loves a great burger and could care less what the person serving it looks like. However, she was dining with one of her more discerning friends. I guess, after the burgers were ready to be served, the owner took a little nibble of lettuce off the more discerning friend’s burger–much to her complete horror. Well, my mother started to laugh, the friend worried about ptomaine poisoning, which, of-course, made it even funnier. The owner of the burger place was promptly nicknamed Tomaine Til. My mother’s friend did not die of ptomaine poisoning, and I’m pretty sure after she tasted the burger she went back again occasionally. Over the years when my mom wanted me to clean up, she would remind me that I did not want to look like Old Til-I didn’t.

On Tuesday, I looked like Til. So, I immediately made a hair appointment, nail appointment, and am even considering adding one feather extension to my hair. My hair dresser told me feather extensions are all the rage with strippers.

I’m proud to say, I washed all the Til away and cleaned up pretty well just in the nick of time. I am dining tonight with one of my favorite people at a grown-up restaurant. Now, what to wear, what to wear. . .

My number one son returns home from his two week trip on Friday, and I can’t wait. I’m never going to let him go away for such a long time again. Never. I tried it; I did not like it, and he cannot do it again. My Facebook friend’s daughter just graduated from college. After her mother worried about her and protected her through the toddler and grade school years, let her live through the teen years, and sacrificed through the college years, her daughter informed her that she had fallen in love and was moving to another state far, far away and, by the way, could she take her mom’s, hostesses with the mostest dishes, with her. I KNOW I DID THIS TO MY MOTHER, but this it different –this could happen to ME someday. And, don’t tell me good parents are supposed to work towards this end or that it means my friend did a good job. It sucks and I am telling Cole right now he can NOT GO. The end. Maybe.

It’s time for me to start planning my outfit for tonight’s dinner out. Should I have a martini? I think I might–just one to toast my dear departed husband with a dear friend that he loved to drink and laugh with. After all, tomorrow he will have been departed two years.

So what do you think should I get a  feather extension? Just one.  I will let you know about the martini tomorrow.

Hope your day is musing right along.

13 thoughts on “Musings about Tomaine Til’ and Dinner Out

  1. Be daring, try that feather extension – do it for us (me) who would never have the guts! hehehehe… have that Martini tonight, you deserve it!! Enjoy your night anc can’t wait to hear all about it tomorrow!

  2. Pomegranate (did I spell that right? I’m not lookin’ it up) martinis rule the world. I would recommend the stripper feather except in my part of the world (Newbury Park, California) all of the little girls have it and one hairdresser I know has it and she drives me NUTS. Seriously, she talks too much she stays too long and she wears an ‘engagement’ ring around her neck I’m assuming because he won’t let her wear it on her finger. So you getting the feather would immediately mean I could now only think of you as annoying Lynn the hairdresser who plays bunco with me once a month. Kind of like I have a friend named Phil from my high school years and whenever I see him I automatically think of my “Uncle Phil” who married my Gramma eversobriefly when I was a little girl. Uncle Phil was a short fat white guy. Friend Phil is a tall skinny black guy. I can’t help it.

    The End.

    • Kim–Funny story…I read your comment while I waited for my friend….when the waiter came she ordered a Martini and I was all like–hum, and uhm and then I blurt out I will have a Pomegranate Martini–just like that. It did rock! I loved it.
      I really don’t want to remind anyone of as annoying hairdresser..but its better than reminding them of a short fat white guy…. I think. 😀

  3. since I am the “discerning friend” of your mother’s I must comment on tomain til..you described her to a T..LOL..I was on a low salt diet at the time and when Til plopped our hamburgers down on her greasy counter I had the nerve to ask her which hamburger had no salt.. I was horrified when she unwrapped the burger, lifted the bun and grabbed a pinch of lettuce and then glared at me and said that the one she sampled was the salt free burger..I was shocked but I knew how wonderful the burger would be so I ate it anyway and did return for many more until Til sold her property and a Churches Chicken exists in that spot..Til had a burlap bag stuck behind her door and we would wonder about what was inside..it was always there..she closed before we could figure that one out..it really was a creepy hamburger joint..LOL

    • Thanks for the added details…I could not remember why Til tasted your burger…..I bet good Old Til retired a rich old codger….
      It was a creepy hamburger joint…what were ya all thinking!! 😀

  4. LOL! I can still see the look of absolute shock on Sue’s face! We had some wild and crazy times. Remember the place we ate at least once or twice a week and the waitress never acted like she’d seen us before? Those truly were the good old days!
    MJ

  5. HA HA! Hilarious! I would be horrified too, Mom!
    I don’t remember that place. How Odd. tee hee
    😀

  6. I just saw this feather extension craze first hand in Seattle. Julie’s 16-yr-old daughter had one. It was just one, ever so small and I thought it was very cool. I’ve never seen them before. She told me they had some sort of symbolic meaning, but researching it on the internet only referred to the Indians (the original feather wearers and scalpers) so I think she meant something else. Great choice on the martini! If you’re going to have just one, go for the good stuff. BTW my plates arrived safely, I’m told. :/

Comments are closed.