Fiendish Fingernails

When I was a teenager and went downtown to Peabody for music theory classes on Saturdays, I used to sometimes go into an old music store. There was a clerk in that music store who was some sort of exotic foreign person who spoke with an accent and had some enormously long fingernails that were polished with white pearlescent fingernail polish. Of course, this was one of the strangest sights I had ever seen and I always wondered why a man or anyone would have fingernails that long and how that person could possibly function in daily life. I remember buying something one time and he gave me my change, and when he placed the coins in my hand, he let them slide down his fingernails and into my palm. His fingernails touched my palm and it was a shocking sensation that I will never forget. So this morning, 40 years later, I run in to Home Depot to pick up something - you know, holiday week-end - get those chores and projects done! - and I went to a check-out counter with a live person because she was standing there with nothing to do and she was closer ot the door than the self check-out where I go most of the time. Well, low and behold, she had these enormous fingernails, longer than her fingers and curved toward her hand, painted in a burgundy color. Again, I was shocked, thinking her nails had a particular ghoulish appearance. Then I realized she was going to give me coins for change and I had a horrible sinking feeling about how she was going to place coins in my hand. Thankfully, she turned her hand sideways and let the coins slide into my hand and I was out of there and away from her in a flash. I knew there was a good reason to go to the self check-out counter! So much for saving a few steps when someone is not busy!