So I was sitting on the bus reading and annotating my lecture notes on electromagnetic inductance for a lecture I was going to give 15 minutes later. A woman got on wearing a very short strapless red dress and medium height heels. She had short curly black hair. She seemed familiar in a way, but I could not place why, and she passed me and sat somewhere at the back of the bus. I carried on reading my notes. A few stops later the woman stood up and stood near the back door waiting for the bus to stop for her. I looked at her again, and it hit me. “She’s dressed a bit like Betty Boop, how funny!”, I thought to myself.
Then I noticed her little black handbag. I noticed the little mobile phone dangling from it on a strap. Then I noticed that it was a Betty Boop handbag. It had the ‘ol gal herself pictured on it, wearing the classic red dress – identical to the one the real person was wearing. She stepped off the bus and disappeared into the city.
I got to thinking about why on earth she was dressed that way at 8:45am? I googled to see if it was Betty Boop day or something but it does not seem to be. With a violent shake of my head I quickly dismissed the idea that she was actually Betty Boop (apparently -why not?- from Puerto Rico, or maybe Cuba, given my guess at her ethnic origin).
So I’ve no idea….. Thoughts?
I’m just chalking it up to the wonderful randomness of living in a huge city like LA with a diverse culture and all sorts of things going on. I love it.
-cvj
(P.S. I borrowed the image above from this site, where it seems you can get an awful lot of stuff associated to Ms Boop.)
January 26th, 2006 at 1:44 am
We get colorful sorts on the Muni system here in San Francisco, too. Glamorous drag queens are not uncommon around the Castro.
But your experience reminds me of a guy wearing a Superman shirt and cape we saw on the bus on the way back home from a movie. A waggish fellow rider asked, “Why don’t you just fly home?”
The reply: “I thought about it, but then I remembered it was my day off.”
Never any such colorful characters on CTA in Chicago, with the possible exception of the Love Bus edition of the Jeffery Express.
January 26th, 2006 at 1:57 am
Yes… but usually the regular weird people are not around that early in the morning. This was weird even for the weird stuff. My new conjecture: And audition or shoot of some sort…… (but clearly the wrong part of town…..hmmmm).
Thanks!
-cvj
January 26th, 2006 at 10:07 am
Cute story, Clifford!
On a more sober note, when I see “characters” like this, I’m reminded of how much more freedom people in this country have for self-expression (however strange or frivolous it seems to the rest of us). The woman couldn’t have carried out her BB act sans severe repurcussions in Afganistan (or pretty much anywhere in that part of the world), right?
January 26th, 2006 at 10:31 am
Yes, you are certainly correct about that.
-cvj
January 26th, 2006 at 6:11 pm
You could have asked her a question just to see if she would affect the voice. Oh that “Boop Boop a Doop” is just a classic indeed. Channelling a cartoon character seems a bit of a stretch though???
January 27th, 2006 at 4:06 am
Sure, but what on earth would I have asked?!
-cvj
January 27th, 2006 at 9:56 am
How about “Excuse me, but are you Betty Boop?” ?
Or if you wanted to be a little more subtle “Is this the stop for….?”
January 29th, 2006 at 10:10 am
erc: – Thanks, but things moved too fast to do that really…. If she’d sat next to me, maybe, but I was not really near enough to her for long enough to strike up a conversation…. and I certainly did not want to appear to be attempting to talk to her in a very pointed way…. bad idea since people think you’re trying to “chat them up”, and I certainly did not want that, expecially given her attire!
Cheers,
-cvj
February 19th, 2006 at 10:42 am
There is a lady in New Mexico that lives the 50′s. Betty Boop to the max. Her name is Lucy and she is fantastic. More Betty Boop for me!
February 19th, 2006 at 12:21 pm
Hey, I saw her again last week, except that she was in normal clothes. She got off at the same bus stop. Maybe if I see her again and get the chance I’ll ask about the Betty Boop costume.
-cvj