New York Daily Photo Analytics

Friday, January 22, 2010

Fit-ty Fi

I enjoyed Wayne's World on Saturday Night Live the first times I saw it (for those not familiar with the sketch series, see here). A friend at the time was incredulous that I would find such juvenile humor entertaining. But she missed the point entirely.
The brilliance of the numerous skits was the accuracy of how they captured the sophomoric humor and thinking of many high school boys. The simple inane things that would be incredibly funny to them. Of course, not every high school student finds the types of anecdotes on the show entertaining. Many are not ridden with an unsophisiticated sense of humor. Unfortunately, I was not immune to the plague.

At the time I was enrolled in the university, we frequented the same all nite deli near our dormitory. There was one particular cashier who had a very distinctive accent and, in a characteristic fashion, would drop the "v" sound in five to become "fi" and drop the "f" sound in "fifty" to become "fit-ty." So we lived for purchases that had 5 or 50 in the total.

Of course, a dream total was anything that ended in 55, becoming our beloved "fit-ty fi" - a total of $1.55, for example, was enough cause for jubilation. It had the feel of roulette - place our bets (items) on the counter, wait for the wheel to stop spinning, and see if our numbers came up. We won a single 5 or 50 often - the perfect game for impetuous youth. We were realists, and we never aspired for a dream total like $5.55 - the odds here were quite poor, and we rarely spent that much. Better to hope for a 5, 50, or 55.

It has been a very long time since this even entered my mind, and I am proud to state that my sense of humor has become more sophisticated. But recently, at dinner, the total was so stunning that I could not help but think that this was the ne plus ultra of my youthful dreams. The unattainable. A total so perfect, we dared not think or speak it, less we live in perpetual disappointment and frustration. I had to recount this tale, of course, to my fellow dinner companions so they could fully appreciate the miracle that lay before us - a bill for $55.55 :)

6 comments:

Leslie said...

Oh dear friend-you know how DELIGHTED I am to read this. I am grinning from ear to ear!!!
What a wonderful stroke of fate.
:-D

Fashion Schlub said...

fitty fi fitty fi! i love it! that's a great story....

brigadoon said...

on the same theme, i always used to like to get people to say things with 30s in them...like "can we meet at the corner of tirdy-tirdy and tird?"

Mindy said...

That is funny!

FogartyFOTO said...

Crack me up!
Steve
www.FogartyFOTO.com/

Geanna Collage said...

Hello there, thanks for making me laugh:)