The Neutron Dance

Years ago I was thrown out of the Macy's hat department in Paramus Mall, New Jersey.

The death of June Pointer, the youngest sibling of the 80s group The Pointer Sisters brought the memory back.

My best friend is a lady name Kay who is like a sister to me. I don't have any sisters so I adopted her. When I first met Kay, she was a very shy individual. Beneath the shyness, as I discovered, was a great sense of fun and humor that had little opportunity to come out.

Well, my influence on others can be detrimental and in Kay's case, it was.

We were shopping at the Macy's and drifted into the hat department. They had some incredible hats. Kay put on his box shaped hat and softly mouthed the words to the Neutron dance. Ever laugh so hard you could not move? That's what happened to me in that instant, watching this quiet, withdrawn individual launch into a Pointer Sister routine.

A saleswoman came upon the scene and was not as nearly amused as I was. Clearly a stick in the mud, she asked Kay to put the hat back on the rack and remove ourselves from the area.