Some time back, traveling with some grandkids along, we had stopped at a rest area. After making use of the facilities and walking off some travel stiffness, I noticed my wife having an animated discussion with the rig that had parked near us. Grandkids had been attracted to the pair of husky dogs riding in the open-top Jeep.
As she noticed me approaching, she concluded the conversation with smiles and waves, then pointed the two little ones back to our rig. All loaded and buckled up, we left.
I asked about the conversation I’d seemed to interrupt.
“Your grandchildren ran to see the big dogs, loudly exclaiming that they were 'lummoxes,' and I had to explain to the nice lady that someone’s grandfather had told the kids that dogs with black lips were lummoxes. As I got within earshot of the conversation, I could hear the poor woman trying to say that they were indeed husky dogs, not lummoxes.”
I allowed as how it seemed to all end well. She said that the lady with the huskies had given her husband the "stink eye” and mentioned understanding about some of the things grandpas tell grandkids.
A friend who was a licensed blaster mentioned having an incensed daughter.
Part of blasting is drilling holes in rocks, in which is placed sticks of dynamite, and if properly done, when detonated said dynamite would crack or break off pieces of rock for removal or trenching. Jerry had tested a big air drill on some cow-sized boulders near his house, leaving a couple of nice clean inch-and-a half holes bored deeply into the boulder.
Some time later, his little girl found the holes and asked about them.
“That would have been giant prehistoric earthworms that made those holes. Then when the mud got hot and changed into rock, the holes survived. Not many of them around.”
Years later, the same daughter, now a teenager, saw him using the same air drill on another rock. He said that girl’s red-headed temper showed itself as she gave him a dressing down about how she felt so stupid now after having bragged on having prehistoric giant earthworm holes right by her house.
Another incident, in the midst of pulling a prank on my youngest son …
As he was falling for it “hook, line and sinker,” his oldest brother kept asking him, “How long have you known your father?” We eventually had a good laugh about it.
Our first year of marriage was an epoch of being broke. I was going to college three days a week and working three days a week and making excellent use of the day of rest.
One day, as I finished supper, my bride asked if I would like some strawberry ice cream for dessert. Knowing there hadn’t been ice cream money in the budget for some time, I gamely said that I would like some. She produced a half-gallon of strawberry ice cream and began dishing it up. I quizzed her as to how we happened to have ice cream in the house.
She said the Meadow Gold ice cream truck stopped and asked if this is where we lived. She said yes, and the driver said he was directed to deliver ice cream. He told her the source, and that the fellow usually had a surprise for him to deliver on the weeks he was in the area.
It was from Merrill Warnick of Pleasant Grove, Utah. He was a mostly retired farmer with lots of his own grandkids in the area. I had a great respect for the man before the ice cream showed up.
He spoke to me in private one day following church services. He said he could tell that I’d always been prone to tease people. He then said that he noticed a hurt look in the eyes of my wife some of the time I’d said something to poke fun at her. He went on that he thought, though it wasn’t his place to judge, that I’d be better off paying more attention to my bride’s feelings.
That was an epic moment in my life. It took some hit-and-miss adjusting, but I catch myself giving smart remarks and wisecracks a second or third thought before popping off as I once did.
There’s a time for fun and a time to be serious.
I’d rather be known for the times I’ve told kids over the phone, after they describe a car’s odd noise or eccentric behavior … what’s wrong with it, what part they need to replace to fix it, what parts store has it and how much it should cost …
Than as being so full of “It” that I couldn’t be trusted or serious either.
