Oh, Asheville - I do love you so! You're so beautiful, cool, weird, wonderful, freaky and full of surprises!

Take tonight, for example. My very cool cousin, J was here from California with her husband, B & their adorable 9-year-old daughter, L. This was their first trip to Asheville - a place J has been keenly interested in seeing. Cousin J is very much an Asheville-type person... laid back, intellectual, bohemian-friendly, etc.

Anyway, we were driving downtown for dinner. As we approached the light at Patton Ave. from Coxe, there was a tall, young nice-looking black man standing on the other side of the street. As we pulled forward toward the stoplight, I noticed that his pants were suddenly around his ankles and he was not wearing underwear... then the pickup truck in front of us blocked my view. J's husband, B was driving and still had an eyeful of this marvel of unabashed exhibitionism. J & 9-year-old L were in the back seat and had also caught the initial glimpse of this impromptu street show. The light finally turned green, the pickup slowly moved forward - obviously not wanting to miss the grande finale of this sidewalk striptease - and we were finally in full view of the now completely naked young man. He spun around, bent over with legs spread, grabbed his butt cheeks and pulled them apart - not only shooting a full moon, but displaying yet another cosmic wonder... a black hole.  Wow.

As we drove by, we noticed a nicely dressed middle aged couple on the corner next to our car laughing with some embarrassment and shaking their heads. Yes, only in Asheville... what would normally seem a vile and unconscionably shocking act became downgraded to an "oh, that crazy guy" level of reaction.

Fortunately, Cousin J is a fellow Recovering Iowan who has seen a lot of this crazy world, as has her husband. They both got a good laugh from this rather unexpected extreme showing. There was an interesting energy in the air, though, as we adults were all nervously hoping that little L hadn't really seen or grasped the entirety of this event. Reality is, however, that L is one of those exceptionally bright and extremely wise little people... the chance that she somehow "missed" this are about as good as George W. Bush ever having a fully functioning brain cell... nill... zip... zilch... nada. Later at dinner, little L commented, "that was inappropriate." Ah, yeah.

So, as we moved on through the evening, it occurred to me once again that the Iowaness in me dictated that I should be completely embarassed by this "impolite breach" perpetrated in front of my guests by a fellow Ashevillian. But that other side of me was not only amused by the sheer freakiness of the moment in pure shock value, alone, but also by the way Americans (especially Iowans) perceive nudity and sexuality, etc. etc. By European standards, we are, indeed, a puritanical lot.

Bottom line is, though, it was unfortunate that a kid had to see that kind of over-the-top display of what appeared to be anger mixed with madness. Then again, she sure will have a darn juicy tale to tell her fellow 4th graders when she returns to the Golden State that will put even the most bizarre Paris Hilton folklore to shame... wow.