Page 125 - MN

125
races. They just look at me like I'm an idiot. So not only did I fail to communicate my love of golf and music, I also failed to combat prejudice in my own home.
I now spend my days looking for sunscreens and lotions that do not contain whiteners. I have always been the whitest guy at every beach and those things could push me into translucent.
As for music, when Awee was small I would bring out the guitar and she not only didn't care about music, she took great joy in hanging rows of finger picks and thumb picks on the strings. Kadjang got a ukulele and I tried to show her chords and songs but she found a Thai music teacher on the internet and learned the song that starts, "I'm just a little bit caught in the middle..." She played and sang it beautifully in a school show. Then she put the ukulele back in the case and never took it out again. Instead, she is taking piano lessons. I feel like the football player whose son decides to be a ballet dancer. I am humbled.
Finally, in retirement I have learned that my career as a not-famous comedian does not dazzle people. Undaunted, I keep trying to slide it into conversations with strangers only to find they don't really care. All those years of thinking my career was wildly important and interesting are falling by the wayside and that's a good thing. I've realized that the happiest I've ever been is here in Thailand with Jintana. I never get stage fright either. If the kids don't laugh at my jokes I can handle it. Barely.
I also learned another important Thailand lesson. The best time to go to the Sunday Walking Street in Chiangmai is when the coronavirus scare has thinned out the tourist herd. I felt I hadn't connected with Thailand enough lately so I drove downtown, parked and walked to the Walking Street. I was surprised to find sparse crowds and I loved it. It's a huge open market and normally jammed.
Jintana was at the funeral in Lampang with her friends, so I just rambled past all the stalls at my own speed. I picked up an ear of hot corn on the cob from a vendor for 20 baht (about 60 cents) and decided that would be dinner as I had pigged out the day before. I split my time between looking at the stuff for sale and looking at the people walking. Now and then I would see a beautiful woman and realize immediately she must be on the lookout for a really, really old guy who was kind of sweaty and hadn't bothered to shave. Yeah, right.
I saw lots of tattoos. When I was a teenager it never would've occurred to me that tattoos would some day be a sign of hip rebellion. Back then the only people who got tattoos were sailors and soldiers and they were kind of a low-class thing. I think Frank Zappa nailed it when he said they were a permanent reminder of a temporary feeling, but obviously I am again out of step with the entire world.
I munched on my corn and put money in the can of a blind guy singing Thai songs. I always tip street musicians, knowing that but for a good manager and a few breaks that could've been me. George Sakellariou, my guitarist friend, and I