Wedding Rings and Old Men

Now that I am baking bread on a regular basis – about three times a week- I’ve made a new discovery about myself. The only relation this has with bread is that I take off my wedding band to knead my bread.

Not that this is a big Ah-haa moment in itself. I tuck my ring into a safe place in my kitchen (one of my three logical places) while I am making my bread. What I find fascinating are the interesting encounters I make along my way if I don’t remember to put the ring back on before going out somewhere.

Old men are flirting with me. At first, I couldn’t figure out what was going on. But then it dawned on me. Old men look for wedding bands. When they don’t see one, it’s open season for them to flirt. The discovery I’ve made is that these old men aren’t necessarily looking for beautiful young women, but for women in their own age group. Interesting, now that I know what’s going on.

Yesterday at the grocery store when I was checking out, a gray-haired (maybe a few years older than me) gentleman was bagging my groceries. He struck up a conversation with me about the beautiful day and what a nice Spring we are having. Then he took the dive – he asked me if I lived nearby. At first, I didn’t realize what was going on. But as I was talking to him, I noticed that he kept looking at my left hand. No ring- I had just finished baking two loaves of bread before going to the store. He proceeded to tell me that he was a widower and was working at the store part-time now that he was retired. Since it was mid-morning, I'm sure that he assumed I was retired, too, and single. When he offered to wheel my buggy to my car for me, I politely refused, causing a stricken look to appear on his face. Rejection! Oh my, I should have put my wedding band back on before going to the store.

Something similar to this has happened three times in the past week. What is revealing to me now as I look back at these men is that I see that they could have been my high school classmates. Of course, I haven’t aged in forty years, but they sure have. Or maybe I have. Which is why they are flirting with me. Second Oh My!! And second Ah-haa!

I think I’ll start making a point to put my ring back on as soon as the bread comes out of the oven.