Melvin's Hat

In McDonalds, I walked over to Donice, sitting alone, drinking her senior coffee and reading the paper. Six months ago, she lost Melvin, her love of sixty years.

"How ya doin', Donice?"

"Oh, the house is so lonely. I am slowly cleaning up. Melvin was such a pack rat. He saved all the plasticware from this place--there are drawers full of the stuff. He saved all the McDonald's receipts--for the... paper. I guess it was from his Mennonite grandparents who escaped from Russia with nothing. Why throw away a perfectly good spoon?"

"It has to be tough to get rid of alot of that stuff--too many memories."

"Yeah," Donice said, "I haven't touched his hat on the back of the chair where he last hung it."

Rotorooter Tales

I walked into the men's locker room at the Y, where a plumber under the sink was snaking a Rotorooter cable into the stopped up drain. His labors brought back memories from my college summers when I worked at a plumbing shop. Fifty years had gone by, while I kept horrendous Rotorooter incidents bottled up inside--no one ever wants to discuss such things.

I told him of my past, and then we swapped stories of when Rotorooter jobs had gone bad--horribly bad. I told a gross story; he topped it; I told a grosser one; he topped that with the grossest Rotorooter tale of all times-- one I can never repeat.

Although I lost, sharing was great therapy.

Ice Please

Amongst the trees in our backyard, Lois and I ate lunch with our grandkids--Sarah age five and Andrew four. They love listening to stories about our encounters with local wildlife. It was also an opportunity to refresh what they should do if they happen upon rutting bucks, coyotes, cougers, bears and rattle-snakes.

Andrew asked if we had seen our perennial mother bear and cubs. "No, not yet," we told him, "When it is cold, they sleep in their den."

Later in the afternoon, I poured some juice for Andrew and asked, "Do you want ice with this?"

Andrew mused, "Yes, because bears don't like the cold."

What's the Word?

 As I walked back to electronics in Target, I passed an elderly clerk, about my age, who had just finished stocking an end cap display.

Looking at me, she said, "I can't bear to take off one more band aide."

I just saw a large pile of rubber bands. "Aren't those rubber bands?" I querried.
...
"Oh, yeah, I forgot the word....Rubber bands."

"Words are getting harder for me to pull out, too," I consoled.

We laughed.

Drive Through

"I want a Sausage McMuffin, orange juice and coffee."

"Okay, Sausage McMuffin, orange juice, and coffee. Please drive up to the window."

I go to the window and wait. There is a lot of activity inside. Then the red curtains open up on the playhouse window, revealing my grinning, five-year-old granddaughter Sarah.

"Here's your McMuffin," handing me a large wood chip; and here's the coffee," handing me a weathered insulated coffee cup.

There is no orange juice, apparently because she's short a second container.

"How much do I owe you?"

"One dollar."

"Here's five dollars; how much do you owe me?"

"Uuuugh..." she muses for a moment and then smiles:  "Four dollars."

She gives me my change: a handful of leaves.

I leave, only to return on request to place another order.