Boogie Nights

For those of you who know and love my sweet, adorable and cherub-faced Mother, you'd never in a million years believe she used to be quite the Disco Queen back in the 70's. Mom and her best friend Charlene, used to go disco dancing on Saturday nights at a club downtown called "The Loft" and some nights they'd come back to our house with two of their favorite dancing buddies for a late night meal. The babysitter would be sent on her way and then Tiff and I would curl up sleepy-eyed on the couch in the family room and watch the disco continue in our very own kitchen.

While Mom and Charlene were preparing something to eat, the guys would turn on the stereo, move the table against the wall and dance right there on our kitchen floor. Mom's favorite dance partner was the spitting image of Deney Terrio from Dance Fever! He had the white John Travolta outfit on - white bell bottom pants with a white vest and a silk shirt - and he had the thick, dark, wavy hair. He was about a foot shorter than our Mom with her high-heeled platform shoes, but they sure did dance great together. He would grab Mom away from the stove and twirl her around the floor and Mom would show us these crazy disco moves that left us stunned! We never knew our Mom had it in her! I still tease her to this day about her old disco days.

Well, I said all that to prepare you for this funny story about a trick Sid played on her this weekend. Last week, we bought Mom her very first official cell phone. She had one, but it was one of those old timey granny phones that didn't do anything but call out. No fancy bells and whistles, no texting or picture taking. We got the phone home, programmed her numbers into it, took a few pictures for her library and set it up, including a special ringtone. And I mean special! Sid downloaded Boogie Nights by the group Heatwave as a ringtone! After he got it all programmed in, he turned the volume up as loud as it would go and we mailed her the phone.

Mom got the phone on Saturday and that night she called me for a mini-lesson in how to use it. I told her the basics - how to turn it off and on, how to text, how to make a call. The next day, I just knew that Mom being Mom would have her new phone with her so she could show it off to her sister at church. So, Sunday morning, when we knew Mom would be deep into the morning church service, we dialed her new number! I was laughing hysterically even before we dialed the number.

The phone rang and rang and rang and I laughed and laughed and laughed. About fifteen minutes later, Mom calls and Sid answers the phone. "Did you kids just call me? What in the world?!?" Mom cried in her high-pitched frantic voice. Turns out, sure enough, Mom's new phone was on and at the bottom of her purse and right in the middle of church it started singing Boogie Nights! I could just picture Mom looking around trying to figure out where in the world that music was coming from. I could see her sister's face and Mom's embarrassment when she realized it was coming from her very own purse! And Mom couldn't remember how to turn the darned thing off, so she just picked up her purse and made her way across the pew and down the aisle of the church as fast as her little legs would carry her, with Boogie Nights playing loudly the whole way! I'm laughing so hard as I type this that tears are streaming down my face! She was so mortified that she stayed in the lobby of the church for a full fifteen minutes before she returned to her seat. When she sat back down, Aunt B asked her who in the world that was calling and Mom smirked, "My silly son-in-law!"

It was priceless! I wish I could have been there to see it all happen in person, but I'm sure if I had been, I would have wet my pants! I still can't stop laughing just thinking about it. I expect she'll be calling me tonight for further lessons on how to use her new phone, and at the top of the list will be "How do I change this silly ringtone?"