Do you remember watching the television show entitled Candid Camera?  If you do, you will understand what I mean when I tell you why I was looking for the little light in the dark window hiding the camera that had just taped a new episode of the show while I and several others ate lunch in the break room the other day.

The incident involved a sweet young girl, two women closer to my age and myself.  I had just sat down at the table with several coworkers I had just met at my new job.  We’ve been working on getting to know one another so we’ve talked about all kinds of different things.  The sweet young girl that sat down across from me and over one chair tossed a glance at my sandwich and asked if it was peanut butter.  I said that it was and she proceeded to tell me that she had an incredibly severe allergy to peanuts and any contact with them would kill her.  Judging by the look on her face I decided to ask if smelling them would put her in any immediate danger.  She offered a convincing “no” so I opened the twin zippered bag and began enjoying my first bite.  By this time another woman had positioned herself directly in front of me and there was another beside me.  I’m typically never at a loss for words and the women that sat down near me weren’t either so we began a friendly chat.  The “peanut allergy” was munching on the sandwich she had just prepared and washed each bite down with a rather hefty gulp of Diet Coke.  Before long our conversation was interrupted by a belch that would have made the makers of Diet Coke blush.  There was a short pause as we waited for the appropriate, “Oh, excuse me.” but it never arrived.  We started chatting again when another belch presented itself.  The pause happened again but no “excuse me” followed.  There were several more loud belches  before the last drop of Diet Coke rolled out of the can  and into the tunnel that proved capable of producing plaster cracking belches.  “Excuse me” never followed.  Not only did I call upon every ounce of available control I had within myself but I also witnessed two grown women stifle their desire to burst into knock down, drag out, fall off your chair kind of laughter.  We all maintained our composure which was, in my opinion, admirable,  but I couldn’t help but wonder when the crew from Candid Camera planned to tell us when our episode would air!