HERE’S YOUR HELMET – WHAT’S YOUR HURRY?

Charlie Portfors, my grandfather, 1950s

My Grandfather Portfors used to laugh over the idiom, “Here’s your hat. What’s your hurry?” Are people today aware of this old phrase? It means that someone has overstayed his welcome. For instance, perhaps a dinner guest stays late into the evening, and you’re wishing you could go to bed. When he finally says, “Well, I should be getting on home,” you might seize the moment to present him with his hat as a hint that indeed the time for leave-taking has come. But to seem more polite, you could add, “But what’s your hurry?”

I thought of that last night as I mentally prepared for my weekend staycation. Mike and son Clint are riding their motorcycles up Hwy 12 to Missoula and then south to Salmon, Idaho, where they’ll spend the night. Then they’ll spend Saturday night in Nampa. Staycation doesn’t begin until Mike leaves, of course, and I was ready. “Here’s your helmet. What’s your hurry?" Oh, Bess and I will miss him, but if he's going, we just as well get on with it.

 “I’ll clean off the kitchen counter,” I thought to myself, and I mentally moved cutting boards and sewing machines. Hmmm.  I don’t know about moving machines. Maybe not. It’s a lot of work and then my supplies are still in the other room. I’ll sew in the sewing room, but I could crochet in the living room. I have a crochet project to finish. And I could read. And oh yes! There will definitely be shopping for rewards.

Well, first things first. Bess and I took our walk. KW