More Local Characters

Not all the characters in Smalltown go to my church, though it sometimes seems that way. Mary Palooza attends the nearby Lutheran church. Mary is in her sixties and has had breast cancer. She has dyed black hair and wears contact lenses so she does not need glasses. She has a somewhat weather-worn skin from working in her yard for years. She also has a very forward-looking chest profile, to put it delicately. Well, I put it delicately, but Mary does not. She told me at a recent Smalltown committee meeting, which we both attended, that she had just been to her radiologist for a mammogram. She gets mammograms frequently to be sure she is still in remission. "I had this new young lady radiologist who just finished X-ray school. I got undressed and went up to the machine and I just flopped those things up there," she sighed. "That gal tried not to look surprised but she blurted out, 'Mrs. Palooza, you don't ever go braless do you?'" Mary answered, "Just to take the wrinkles out of my face honey!"