Rite of Spring

Early this morning, just after midnight I trundled down to Safeway to get some cereal and milk for breakfast.  As I approached the parking lot, I heard music and shrill, whooping sounds.  Upon closer inspection, I discovered that the strange noises were being produced by a group of six or eight blonde, college girls who had taken off their blouses and were dancing in their bras in the parking lot to the sound of rap music from the stereo of a car parked nearby with its windows rolled down. Girls gone wild right in my very neighborhood!  Who knows what possessed them to engage in this bizarre, primitive rite?  The warm (for San Francisco) spring night?  The consumption of multiple apple martinis?  Your guess is as good as mine. 

When I went in the store, I offhandly mentioned the strange activities going on in the parking lot to a Safeway clerk stocking shelves.  I heard him call out to his coworkers "you've got to get a look at this" and soon every young male working the night shift was standing at the front of the store in rapt attention at the dancing girls outside.  Perhaps overcome by a fit of modesty at being on the receiving end of the attentions of Safeway's night crew or because the night air was starting to grow chill, the girls ended their dance; the tops went back on, the music stopped, the stock clerks went back to stocking shelves and the night resumed its normal course. 

Update on Sunday, May 14, 2006 at 11:13AM by Patrick Carroll

I emailed Leah Garchik in the San Francisco Chronicle with this item, and it made her Friday May 12 column!