A story about a fictitious Mr. Sanford, after the tryst

Ever know a guy in your neighborhood when you were a kid who was a friend's dad.

I'm a gall-darn good-lookin' man.
And I'm still a playa. 

The story is fairly common and goes like this.

You know the man as the father of his children, and a husband. Until one day the bombshell drops that he's been cheating with another woman.

It blows everybody's mind. All the mothers in the block are talking about it, and they throttle down to a whisper, or hush, when a child walks into the room.

We've all seen it. He leaves the house for that fresher set of linen.

The most lasting part of it, is when you become college aged, and you're hanging out in the local dive. Mr. Sanford walks in, 25 years older than everybody else, acting like he's one of the guys from campus. He comes up to you, slaps you on the back, and says: “How ya' doing?” Then, as you nervously look for someplace to hide your beer, a girl in one of your classes walks up, and you figure out she's with Mark, your childhood friend's former father.

“Meet my fiance,” Mark says. You blush a little, and shake her hand.

He's all smiles, at ease shootin' the breeze, like he's 21.

You're not so comfortable with it, very nervous.

Mr. Sanford used to be the go-to father. He waxed authoritative on the virtues of family, and responsibility. His father worked, hard, and left him set. And he preaches that to you.

So when he brings his little prize into the bar, you're uptight, feeling a little out-of-balance, not knowing how to place Mr. Sanford in this role.

Of course he has had no problem in transition from pontificator to fornicator.

You're just praying his son does not walk in, to make it more creepy than it already is.

Five years down the line, you see Mr. Sanford again. The fiance thing didn't work out. And the harshness of the life outside his family, is showing all over Sanford's face.

Shots, and the next party, have for years taken the place of Dixie Youth Baseball games, and trips to the fun park's batting cage, like he used to do when you knew him.

Mr. Sanford, was such a handsome man, is not so much anymore. Age is moving on him fast.

He stands around, using dirty words with girls half his age, not seeing them mimic a gag reflex. You see, in his mind, Mr. Sanford is still that young handsome dad you used to know at the community pool, when you and his son were in fifth grade. Not a lecherous, old creep, trying to convince everybody that he is somebody special, as he orders another belt to help him take some years from his mind.

Editor's Note: All characters used in this account are fictitious and for the purpose of entertainment. Any similarities to actual people are totally coincidental, and intended.