CRAWFISH PIE AND A FILLET GUMBO

At The Table Of Contents cafe in Xenia, "Jambalaya" was listed as the soup of the day. When I ordered a bowl, I asked the waitress, "Do you have crawfish pie?" I saw that she was dumbfounded, so, of course I started singing, "Jambalaya, crawfish pie and fillet gumbo." Seeing that she also did not GET that, I said, "Hank Williams, it's a very famous song." She said she didn't KNOW Hank Williams. (I thought better of mentioning Junior and the Third) I said, "You're too young." She answered, "I'm 41." I said, "Oh, you're just a baby." A woman, sitting at a table, waiting to have her food delivered, said, "I'm 53 and I don't know it, either." I had gauged this woman as being OLDER. She had dreads longer than Bob Marley and Lenny Kravitz and she was wearing a long skirt and sweater that looked reminiscent of hippie clothes from the sixties.

When my luncheon companion joined me, he also did not GET the reference.

So, there I was, a person who doesn't even like country and western music, singing Jambalaya, in public, to five people who didn't GET it.

When I related the story to my brother Les, he said, "It doesn't do any good to make cultural references when your audience isn't going to GET them."