Social Accoutrements

This week seemed to be the week for what I am terming social accoutrements, physical and tangible items related to one's social activities. In this case one kitchen worker (of course no names mentioned!) received some serious scratch marks on his neck. In the other case, another worker seemingly proudly displayed a hickey.

What I found interesting is that no one noticed. I noticed right away! How could one not? I thought maybe my co-workers were trying to be polite and unobtrusive. However I had no problem steering the opposite direction and inquired directly with each recipient. Upon confirmation, I attempted to gossip about it, but the reaction was "What? I hadn't noticed!"

As mentioned, I inquired directly with each social accoutrement recipient to better understand the origin of his marking, and of course to confirm this was indeed what I believed it to be.

On Saturday, the first inquiry and premier chronological incident, related to the neck scratches. These were fairly wide, too wide to be cat claw marks (I have cats! I know!) and rather deep. I thought for a few moments about what other causes could result in this placement and depth of scratches. I thought of none.

Then at the end of the night I approached when no one was around, "Who you been hookin' up with that gave you those scratches on your neck?" To my surprise there was no attempt to claim an origin other than social accoutrement. Rather it was, "I'm staying away from those ______ ladies! They're mean!" **

Additionally, his reply and description of the donor was the complete opposite of who I pictured with this soft-spoken, hard-working, Southern small-town, youthful boy. Obviously, my thoughts on Youth Boy's potential mate was way off base! I'm sure it won't be the last time for that scenario.

The second social accoutrement incident occurred I believe on Sunday, our day off, and was spotted Monday at work. This particular worker has a new girlfriend, so I wasn't surprised when I saw the hickey on his neck. I am more familiar with this person and relished that I could bust him for his off-duty behavior. I didn't wait this time. I pounced right away. "Nice hickey!" Again, no attempt to claim an alternate origin, although in this case it would have been futile. Actually, there was no verbal reply at all, only a huge ear-to-ear grin. Admittedly, it was cute. Ick! (I actually felt kind of jealous! I don't really miss my single days at all, but that new relationship feeling is kind of exciting. I need to tell my hubbie to step it up and treat me to an date!)

Teasing Hickey Man didn't last however. I immediately used this as an opportunity to gossip about Youth Boy's social accoutrement incident. Did Hickey Man see it? Did he ask about it and get the same reply? All answers were no, but a look of amazement appeared. I described the brief conversation I'd had with Youth Boy and Hickey Man giggled a little. Later that day Youth Boy came in and sure enough, several days later the scratches were still visible and Hickey Boy looked and smiled with amusement.

Ah... what will next week hold?

** The blank spot was the name of an ethnicity. I don't actually recall what he specially named, so in the fear of misquoting or otherwise promoting a stereotype, I feel okay leaving it blank. I know, the statement loses some of its shock value- sorry.