Sunday, February 23, 2014

NYT Metropolitan Diary: "When a Wig Parts Ways With Its Scalp"

"As an observant Jewish woman, I’ve worn a wig since my marriage – and wigs don’t take kindly to rain. I opened my umbrella, taking care not to gouge passers-by. I was heading uptown when I had an odd sensation: I felt the bangs that usually cover my forehead rise above my brows and beyond. There was a tugging of my scalp, and then a breeze. Yikes! My wig and I had parted company."
A tall, well-dressed gentleman going in the opposite direction had inadvertently hooked his umbrella into the mesh netting of the wig. Unaware that my “head” was dangling precariously from the spokes of his umbrella, he strode onward.

At first I stood frozen, watching my custom-made wig recede in the distance. Then I sprang into action and took off in his direction, determined to recapture my head before it fell into a puddle and was trampled underfoot. He was moving quickly but caught a red light at the corner. I tapped him on the shoulder, and pointed to my wig.
Edith T.

2 comments:

deborah said...

lol a practical woman.

MamaM said...

Along with the commenter at the link, I too was waiting for a punchline, or some clue as to what the experience meant to her, since she apparently wears a wig in public in keeping with the tradition of being "an observant Jewish woman."

The story is strange. It was not her head but her head covering that was dangling from the stranger's umbrella. And it sounds like it wasn't her scalp but her natural hair that parted ways with her wig.

Other then her mention of an "odd sensation" there's no accounting for the sense of surprise which surely must have visited both participants.

It's a difficult story to enter, because the telling does not make sense.