Ghosting ...

I just saw a modern-day definition of the word ghosting.  It means a cowardly way of ending a relationship.  When a woman is no longer interested in dating a man, she simply cuts off all communication.

When a man is no longer interested in seeing a woman, he stops answering his phone.

Ghosting ...

In 1953 ghosting meant cheating the landlady.

Six of us - all girls - were fresh out of high school with brand new jobs that paid 75 cents an hour.   We shared an upstairs one-bedroom furnished apartment in an old two-story house on East Capitol Avenue in Little Rock.  It rented for 30.00 a month.  Utilities included.  We paid 5.00 each.  One of us - the one who went alone to hand over the cash on the first of every month - was a legal tenant.  The other five were ghosting.

For us, it was a never-ending pajama party.  We wore each other's clothes, curled each other's hair, painted  each other's nails, told each other's secrets and stepped over each other's sleeping bodies on the floor.

We had bologna sandwiches for breakfast and for supper we walked downtown and filled up on Krystal Burgers at eleven cents each.  They were delicious.

1953 was a very good year for ghosting.


email:  MelindaGerner@yahoo.com