Mama-San

On one visit to my parent’s beach house, Mike and I had gone down ahead, eager to see the ocean after living 2000 miles away in land locked Iowa. We unpacked and walked the beach, said hello to the ocean, and were hanging around awaiting my folk’s arrival. Dad walked in accompanied by a silent smiling geisha. She nodded fanning herself and refused to speak for a half an hour. It was weird to see my Mom staying in character for so long. Having been captivated by the book and TV series Shogun, she thought arriving in Japanese attire would be a riot. They managed the 2 hr drive down without causing any accidents, despite a few second takes at the ‘Japanese’ lady in the passenger seat with the cigarette dangling out of her mouth. She either borrowed the outfit or it may have been a leftover from when the Japanese tourists stayed at out home a few years before. Mom had befriended a guy who sponsored foreign visitors to the USA - I forget the name of his organization “American ports of call” or something. His idea was to pair up tourists with host families for overnight visits so they could get a real feel for American family life. Mom was all for it and we had visitors for dinner and occasional overnighters like the Japanese contingent. The latter was a group of 7 or 8 young Japanese students who Mom arranged to have stay at several friends’ homes, we had 3 or 4. I was working as a waitress at the time and didn’t usually get home till after 2AM and not being clued in about the guests, came into a silent house oddly littered with dozens of origami cranes, foreign teabags and a Mexican sombrero. Tiptoeing over blanket covered bodies on my way out to the pool house where I slept was a surreal experience.
This was not Mom’s first time in disguise. Once when her dad was visiting from Tennessee and we all went to Disneyland, Mom bought some fake eyelashes and sat on a bench with them on smoking a cigarette in a long holder, he totally passed her by without a turn and she loved it.