As soon as I walked in the back door of Grace Cafe and Gallery last night I ran into Stanley, the octogenarian I once played tennis with in 2007.
"How are you doing?" I asked him.
"Well, I'm not traveling to England as often I used to," he said. "So I'm unable to improve my diction."
I found Sharon, my Aussie friend, buying discount Christmas cards. The man taking her money said he'd never been kissed by an Australian before, so she gave him a peck on the cheek.
"What do I get out of this transaction?" she asked.
"You get to kiss me," the man said.
"But I've kissed American men before."
I noticed the host of a TV show I'd once been on. "How are things at the Sun-Sentinel?" Stephen asked.
"I don't know," I told him. "I was laid off a year and a half ago."
Then he introduced me to his brother, who was one of the two artists exhibiting their work.
A woman in a scarf stood looking at portraits by Ferdie Pacheco.
"You know who that is?" I asked her.
"No."
"That's the Fight Doctor. He was the doctor for Mohammed Ali."
"That's who that is!" she said. "I went to boarding school with his daughter."
I asked her what she did. She said she made scarves.
"Is this one of yours?" I asked.
"No. I didn't have any to go with this outfit."
A woman joined us, and we started talking travel. I mentioned that I used to be the travel editor of the Sun-Sentinel.
"I know you now," the first woman said. "You're Tom..." I helped her with the last name. "You know, every time I drive down Las Olas and pass the old Hyde Park market I think of your plaza."
I explained to the second woman my dream - detailed once in a column - of a Mexican-style plaza in the heart of Fort Lauderdale, with a bandstand, chess tables, food stalls, life.
Her friend, a prosecutor, joined us. I asked if she liked reading the novels of Grisham and Turow. Yes, she said unconvincingly. "But they're always about murders. I'm more interested in all the crazy stuff that goes on in court. Sometimes I stand there and just want to laugh. Sometimes I do laugh."
Suddenly the voice of Carlos Gardel filled the gallery and, just inside the entrance, a handsome couple danced a tango.
