Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

At the art museum with my friend yesterday, a lovely encounter occurred.  We had seen the Eames exhibit, and my older friend told me she was in Detroit during the late forties and early fifties, when all this modern design was bursting on the scene.  She had been a design major and with a friend began an interior design business in their area of Philadelphia.  She knew all the famous people from that post world war II era.  We entered the cafeteria, ordered and were told it would be a 30 minute wait.  There were no tables.  Finally we saw two men at a table for four and asked if we could join them.  They were gracious and delightful.  We spent the next hour talking with them about design, mid-century modern furniture and then on to a bit about ourselves.  They were a gay couple, living in San Francisco, but owned a condo in Portland, Oregon.  Their place is near my son's and across the river from my daughter's so we chatted about the art museum there, the Japanese Garden, the Chinese Garden and other great spots.  We even talked dogs.  Their pooch Greta was waiting patiently for them in the car in the underground garage.  They were about the age of my older son, and so funny.  I recommended a couple of movies they hadn't seen set in Oakland.  They were enchanted with my 88 year old friend's "I was there" history of the exhibit we'd just seen.  She'd been to the show in 1949 that launched the Eames name into a household one.  The serendipity of it all beguiled me, and my friend and I got the the car grinning ear to ear.