Surely They’re Laughing With Me
By Randy Fitzgerald
Why is everyone suddenly so happy at the health club?
[read more]
Surely They’re Laughing With Me
I've been noticing in recent days how very jovial and friendly all the folks had become at our health club, just up the street from home, where Barb and I have been exercising for several years now. Oh, they’ve always been nice enough there. But in the past couple of weeks they’ve been positively beaming when I come in, staff and fellow exercisers alike.
Barb usually goes up there in the morning, while I’m in class, but she says she’s noticed no difference in the atmosphere of late. “Pleasant as always,” she noted, “but nobody’s going overboard.”
Yet when I arrived around 4:30 or 5 each afternoon, you’d think the Good Humor man had just passed through. The people at the front desk might say, “Ahh, he’s here!” as though they’re making a joyful announcement. And every day on my way down the hall to the back room where Barb and I prefer to exercise, away from all the action of the spirited weight-loss classes, there always seemed to be someone with a knowing smile and a warm greeting. I had started to think it was all a bit curious.
REVVING UP THE TREADMILL
My recent routine has been to step on my favorite treadmill each afternoon, put on my brand new headphones and boot up my trusty iPod, usually starting off with some Rolling Stones, a little “Honky Tonk Woman” and “Satisfaction,” then moving on to some righteous Jimmy Buffett and building toward a big finish with some lively old-time bluegrass. With the right music, I find my feet are much more willing to hike down that long path to nowhere that the treadmill daily lays out ahead of me.
Sometimes I find myself quietly singing along, usually with my eyes closed and, eventually, with the stress of the day slowly falling away as I walk. If, between songs, I happen to look over at nearby walkers, they appear to be as happy as I am to be meeting the day’s exercise quota and reducing their stress level. They unfailingly smile in my direction, sometimes give me an amused little wave or even say something like “Well, you’re certainly in a good mood today.”
I wonder if I would ever have learned the cause of all this good will and bonhomie had Barb not changed her routine one day last week and come to the gym to exercise with me in the afternoon, rather than in the morning.
LEADING OFF WITH “BROWN SUGAR”
She took the treadmill next to mine, and I set off on my usual routine, headphones in place, “Brown Sugar” leading me off on the road to health and happiness. Midway into the song, I opened my eyes to find my dear wife in tears, almost falling off her machine she was laughing so hard.
“Have you forgotten,” she asked, once she was composed enough to speak, “how a person sounds when they try to sing out loud with headphones on?”
Apparently, although I had thought I was singing softly, my range had actually been somewhere closer to the top of my lungs, all off-key, of course, the way everybody sounds when singing through headphones. I can’t explain what causes that phenomenon because when you’re inside those headphones, you think you sound wonderful. But to the listener, you’re croaking and shrilling and about 30 decibels louder than you think you are.
Apparently, I had been a source of entertainment for the whole back room at the health spa for weeks. On occasion, I later heard, some staff members had been assembling at the door for some of my best moments.
“Ohh,” one of the nearby ladies said to Barb, “I wish you hadn’t told him. We’ve really gotten a kick lately out of his singing.”
I’m embarrassed, but it could have been worse. If I had gotten to the Jimmy Buffett song that was coming up next on my iPod and sung that one aloud, well, let’s just say I might have wiped away a smile or two.
Randy Fitzgerald teaches modern American literature at Virginia Union University. He was a longtime public relations director at the University of Richmond and columnist for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Contact him at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
.
|
