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Raining on Prom Night

Friday night I was on pizza delivery duty for the GSA all-HoCo party at my daughter’s high school.


They were tight on money so restaurant delivery from Anthony’s wasn’t in the cards. Having Mom bring it on over from Little Caesar’s was the more affordable option.

It was raining, not heavily, but when hasn’t it been raining lately? When I arrived at Little Caesar’s in the Oakland Mills Village Center there were only two other customers: a young couple in evening finery. The fellow, in a whimsical move, was wearing his date’s handbag around his neck by its gold chain handle. Her dress was red, satin and lace, but understated. Quietly elegant.

“You guys look fabulous!”

“Thanks!”

“Prom?”

“Yep.”

Another gentleman came in from the rain. Around my age, maybe older.

“Where’s your prom?”

“B & O Railroad Museum, in Baltimore.”

“Oh, that’s gorgeous. You’re going to love that,” he said. I shook my head in agreement.

All the while the young couple is waiting on their order, and I am waiting for fifteen assorted pizzas and five orders of cinnamon bite things. I begin to carry my order out to the car. The young people leave, carrying a pizza. The young man stops.

“Do you need some help carrying that to your car?”

“Oh, heavens. No, I’m fine. You go to your prom and have a fabulous time!”

They smile and walk away. The clerk from the pizza place comes out carrying the rest of my pizzas.  It is an altogether satisfactory experience.

Some of our kids in Howard County pose for photographs by the family pool and head off to dinner in fancy restaurants before the prom. These kids were heading off with a humble pizza from Little Caesar’s and they still had the human kindness to offer help to someone in the rain.

It turns out that it was the Wilde Lake prom they were heading to. I checked the arrival photos in the Sun but didn’t see them.

I hope they had a truly wonderful time.




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