Thursday, May 13, 2021

Where the Ann & Hope Used To Be

      (A game show.)

TRACY:  Welcome to Rhode Island's favorite game show--What Used to Be There?  A show all about where things used to be here in the Ocean State. Playing today are Maureen.

MAUREEN:  Hi Tracy. You look just like my friend Marie's sister. Do you know Marie?

TRACY:  I do not. And Lucille.

LUCILLE:  It's freezing in here. You got the air on?

TRACY:  The air broke a week ago. It's eighty degrees in the studio.

LUCILLE:  I should have brought my shawl.

TRACY:  Are you two ready to play the game?

MAUREEN/LUCILLE:  Sure. What else do I have going on?/How am I supposed to think when it's so cold in here?

TRACY:  Great!  First question--Maureen, there's a new Verizon store opening on Post Road in Warwick. What used to be there?

MAUREEN:  That was where my cousin Louie met his first wife.

TRACY:  But what was the name of the store?

MAUREEN:  It was the place where you would buy the thing.

TRACY:  We need you to be more specific.

MAURREN:  The thing. You'd get the thing and you'd put it behind the thing, and you'd have a thing.

LUCILLE:  It was the place where you'd get the hair extensions.

MAUREEN:  Betty's Hair and Tattoo Parlor!

TRACY:  That is correct!

LUCILLE:  My ex-husband got my name on his arm there.

MAUREEN:  Who's your ex-husband?

LUCILLE:  Joe Silverman.

MAUREEN:  I went to school with Bonnie Silverman.

LUCILLE:  You're kidding.

MAUREEN:  Bonnie, Tony, Franny--all of them.

LUCILLE:  I gotta tell Joe when I see him.

MAUREEN:  How's he doing?

LUCILLE:  We got divorced in '87 and I haven't talked to him since.

MAUREEN:  Ohhhhhh.

LUCILLE:  But if I see him, I'll tell him I saw--

MAUREEN:  Maureen Flaherty.

LUCILLE:  Maureen Flaherty. Like the Flaherty's from Mount Pleasant?

MAUREEN:  Yeah!

LUCILLE:  Oh my god. You must know my cousin Cindy!

TRACY:  Ladies, please! Let's focus.

MAUREEN:  Can't even have a conversation.

LUCILLE:  Geez.

TRACY:  Can you tell me what used to be where the hookah bar is on Mineral Spring Avenue?

MAUREEN:  Hookah? Did she say hookah?

LUCILLE:  Like a whoo-ah?

MAUREEN:  Is that what she said?

LUCILLE:  She doesn't want me talking about my cousin Cindy, and then she says 'whoo-ah.'

TRACY:  Hookah, ladies, hookah.

MAUREEN:  Hoo-ah! Like Pacino. You see that movie?

LUCILLE:  He was so good.

MAUREEN:  I'm the Godfather! Hoo-ah!

TRACY:  No, that's the wrong movie.

LUCILLE:  What am I? Siskel?

MAUREEN:  Ebert.

LUCILLE:  Ebert. Which one's dead?

MAUREEN:  They're both dead.

LUCILLE:  So young.

MAUREEN:  Too young. All the good ones?

LUCILLE/MAUREEN:  Dead.

TRACY:  Can you tell me what used to be where the--

MAUREEN:  That's where Lil Vicky's Deli Shop was. I used to love it there. She made an Italian grinder like nothing you've ever had in your life.

LUCILLE:  What ever happened to her?

MAUREEN:  To who?

LUCILLE:  Lil Vicky.

MAUREEN:  She went out of business in 1991.

LUCILLE:  You know whose fault that is?

MAUREEN/LUCILLE:  Gina's.

TRACY:  Ladies, please, we're almost out of time--

MAUREN:  You can't even run a VCR repair shop in Rhode Island anymore. What they've done to this state is a sin.

LUCILLE:  Can't even find someone to fix a cassette player.

MAUREEN:  You know who I feel bad for?

LUCILLE/MAUREEN:  The kids.

TRACY:  Okay, ladies, last question--

LUCILLE:  Now, I'm sweating. I was cold, now I'm sweating.

MAUREEN:  Anybody hear that bell?  I keep hearing a bell.

LUCILLE:  There were all these ambulances down by the Stop 'n Shop.

MAUREEN:  What was that about?

LUCILLE:  I don't know. There was nothing on the news.

MAUREEN:  Ambulances at a Stop 'n Shop and it doesn't even make the news?

LUCILLE:  That's how it is.

MAUREEN:  That's how it is.

TRACY:  Name one store that used to be at Midland Mall.

LUCILLE:  There was a KB Toys.

MAUREEN:  No, that was at Swansea.

LUCILLE:  Was it?

MAUREEN:  It was.

LUCILLE:  You know who worked at KB Toys?

MAUREEN:  Who?

LUCILLE:  My cousin Cindy.

MAUREEN:  How's Cindy doing?

TRACY:  Well, I think that about wraps it up.

LUCILLE:  She's got that thing on her back. Won't get it looked at. I don't know what to tell her.

MAUREEN:  Listen, it's her life.

TRACY:  We'll see you next time--

LUCILLE:  I mind my business, that's what I do.

TRACY:  --Or maybe we won't.  Good night, everybody!

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