On a recent vacation, we took a scenic two-hour train ride on a historic train through the countryside.  It was beautiful, and we really enjoyed it.  But I ended up noticing a huge contrast during the ride, though, and thought I’d share it.  It has to do with two lady passengers on the train… one sitting in front of us, whom I will call Beautiful Betty, and the other sitting behind us… we’ll call her Raspy Rita.

Beautiful Betty and her husband were the sweetest little couple you ever did see.  They were in their 80′s, and clearly so in love with each other.  In fact, we started noticing them as they were telling ‘their story’ to the couple sitting in front of them.  They’ve actually only been married a few years and met at a funeral they both happened to attend.  Then a few weeks after that,  he called her and she happened to be listening to a baseball game on the radio.  So he tuned his radio to the same game and they just sat there on the phone with each other while they both listened to the game.  And they would just keep doing this, until they finally decided to kick it up a notch, and eventually finally decided to marry, even at their sweet golden ages.  Sigh!!

Now, during the course of the train ride, the club car host stops by and visits with each row of passengers.  And the host and the husband in our sweet little couple started talking about how old each other was.  Turns out our guy was 84.  And right after he said his age, Beautiful Betty chimed in and said, “And he still gets out and plays tennis three times a week!”  Then the two men continued talking and she again piped up with, “And he’s the sweetest man you would ever want to know!”  all while looking adoringly at her hubby.

And to top it off, a fiddler comes through and plays beautiful music for everyone.  And at one point, he walks up and down the aisle playing sweet, romantic music, and pauses next to the seat of each couple until they smooch, and then he moves on to the next couple.  Well, I am telling you, Golden Couple’s kiss was probably the longest one out of all the couples on that train!  Too sweet.

NOW, on to Raspy Rita.  (And before I go any further, please know that Raspy Rita really was a nice gal.  Very friendly.  And I’m not writing this with the intent on picking on her personally.  Strictly illustrative purposes going on here.)   ANYWAY, I just couldn’t help noticing her, especially with the contrast going on between her and Beautiful Betty.  You see, Raspy Rita, although very nice, had the big, blaring voice that carried all through the train car.  Because she talked all the time.  To everyone.  No matter how far away their seat was located from her.  And sometimes she would even give out advice to whoever was walking by… Did anyone else know that you can apparently put whiskey on a teething baby’s gums?  Me neither.

She started the trip seated in the middle of the train car, but, after she and her guy made a quick visit to the snack car and returned with their Budweiser bottles, they decided to switch seats and sat in the back of the train car, right behind us.  I was suddenly reverted back to the high school memory of the ‘party in the back of the bus’ scene, where all the cool kids sat.

But even with the new rear seating they had, as something would happen elsewhere on the train, or the host would make a joke over the loudspeaker, Raspy Rita was faithful in loudly shouting all her responses so we could all share in her humor.  Then, after the beers took effect, Raspy Rita and her guy got a little more, uh, cozy.  A little smoochy, Budweiser-style (definitely no fiddler needed to prompt anything here).  I didn’t even have to have a visual to know what was going on.

So, there we sat for the rest of the train ride… between the two contrasting ladies.  One, a pure lady from head to toe.  The other… not so much.  Beautiful Betty has such a sweetness to her, you wanted to invite her and her blessed husband over for dinner, just to sit there and watch how cute they are!  She was so encouraging to her husband and just such a pleasure to be around.

And had we only been around Dear Rita for a little while, it wouldn’t have been so bothersome…probably even enjoyable!  But being enclosed in a train car for two hours with this ‘jubilance’ tends to grate on one’s nerves.  It’s kind of like when you’re enjoying a nice dinner out and then ‘The Loudtalker’ gets seated at the table next to you.  After five minutes you’re ready to move.

If you’ve read a few of my other posts, you’ve seen that I’m always encouraging women to be joyful… it’s what brings out our beauty.  However, there is a difference in being joyful and being just plain obnoxious in this pursuit.

So, again gals, let’s always try to retain our classiness.  Opt for being a Beautiful Betty…you have no idea how much everyone will appreciate it.

P.S.  Tooootally unrelated topic… I just updated my ‘About’ page, so feel free to check it out if you’d like.  I included a few random and useless facts about myself… always good if you’re looking to kill some time.  Enjoy!