My father and my Uncle Jim Frank were great story tellers whenever they got together. By “great,” I mean “prolific and enthusiastic.” First cousins, they had grown up together “in the country.” Uncle Jim Frank actually would have been my second cousin something-or-other. He told of being a young man and driving an elderly relative into the county seat of Lafayette, which had only recently installed its first traffic light. I’m sorry I can’t remember his name, but the old man was sitting in Jim Frank’s rumble seat. That’s how long ago this was. The light was red, and Jim Frank stopped and waited for it to turn green. Down the road apiece, he looked back and was astonished to discover the old man was no longer there. He quickly doubled back and found the old man at the intersection. Jim Frank asked why he’d gotten out, and the man replied, “You stopped and sat there, so I thought something was wrong with the car!” I’m not holding that up as one of my uncle/cousin’s best, but to illustrate a point. It seems to me, most stories aren’t extended narratives, as the name “story” might imply. They’re more like jokes, with a set-up and a punchline, and the best raconteurs are masters of brevity and comedic timing . I guess I would see it that way.
66 responses to “Storied Past III”
RA I saw one of those posts and posted the link to the site here with an invitation to come over.
These ought to get somebody laughing: https://www.alphadictionary.com/fun/funny_names.html
It starts with women’s names, just keep scrolling down for the men.
Whoops: “lectured in both general ed & majors frosh COURSES all 36 yrs, …” Peace,
I was charging my tablet so I hadn’t seen your question xcp. We were living in Louisiana. We were in Slidell. There are both possums and blue crab there. The crab do very well in the intercoastal waters.
Thanks Mark and Ruth Anne. My primary phone died and will not revive. Ghost hated AT&T more than I. Neither of us wants to deal with them.
I tried getting back into Facebook from My backup phone and this tsblrt, it wouldn’t let me in and I ended up with a second account I didn’t want. Now Facebook thinks I am not me.
Hasten to add I have a brand new unused Apple computer and a cheaper laptop unused and new. Plus fancy tablet. I have the tech but not the skills.
Ghost and I are going to bite the shell and go to AT&T tomorrow after we get oil changed. A bullet isn’t large enough for biting.
It looks like everything is tied to that primary phone somehow?
I can tell you that crabs and possums and raccoons do extremely well in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
Raccoons would have hauled out crsbs, opened trap and eaten crabs before throwing it back with empty beer cans inside. Smart little buggers.
Jackie, you had me laughing about the raccoons. Very familiar with how smart they are.
Green monkeys [= black-faced vervets].
https://explore.org/livecams/african-wildlife/african-animal-lookout-camera
Peace,
Yep, even I have seen educational TV programs featuring a female raccoon teaching the kits how to catch crabs safely up in down east coastal regions. They used the tidal pools as the hunting area. No doubt that ‘possums have more teeth, but I’d guess raccoons have more than a few IQ points’ advantage on the former.
True story: Many years ago, the business I was managing at the time was frequently visited by an elderly man with repetitive and nonsensical complaints. After the first couple of visits, I realized the gentleman had some mental issues, and I directed staff to always let me handle him when he came in. Which I did, two or three times a week, for over a year. After all these years, I still remember his name…E. C. Peak (not his real name). I was never able to satisfy his supposed concerns, but I was able to keep from further antagonizing him.
One day, one of my staff members told me she had seen an obituary in the local paper for Mr. Peak. As always, I was sad that someone I knew had passed, but I couldn’t help but think, “Well, at least that’s one name I’ll never have to see or hear again.”
A few weeks later, I was on a county road headed to my employers’ house, a journey I made almost every day. As I rounded a curve and approached a short bridge over a creek, I saw the new sign which had been placed on the bridge’s banister…E C PEAK MEMORIAL BRIDGE.
Jackie, seconding Laura’s laughter. You supplied a vivid picture of beer guzzling varmints. My internal script added a raccoon sized belch while flinging the crabpot back with its newly emptied cargo. Followed by a chitterring noise while scampering away that sounds a lot like laughter. Thanks for the giggle.
Ghost, I wonder if your worthy man had also made frequent complaints to the Dept. of Transportation’s engineering staff concerning the state of local bridges. They had feelings like yours and found a way to commemorate. He went from a twenty minute wrangle on alternate days to a twenty second memory daily. Just doing his part to fill the rich tapestry of life.
Ghost
I hope you had at least some salt along.
A cheese sauce would not gone amiss.
c x-p: “No doubt that ‘possums have more teeth, but I’d guess raccoons have more than a few IQ points’ advantage on the former.” 1. They do have more teeth than most mammals, as do many marsupials, (# uppers/# lowers): 5/4 incisors, 1/1 canines, 3/3 premolars, 4/4 molars. All of the teeth behind the canines are much alike, which, again, is true of many marsupials. Raccoon [adult]: 3/3, 1/1, 4/4, 3/3. Both are omnivores. Those data are found in many regional mammal books, incl. the 1982 book ref. to earlier. Here is the high-tech experiment that H.H.T. Jackson reported in his excellent Mammals of Wisconsin [1961], U. WI Press. Jackson measured the cranial capacity of adults skulls of a raccoon and an opossum using reasonably uniform objects, dried navy beans. Opossum: 26, raccoon 139. Quantity is not quality, but I’d guess coons are smarter.
Once cornered a S Michigan adult opossum in the base of a hollow tree. Very snappish, but, if I stayed still a minute or two, it forgot I was there and relaxed. Decided we’d have it for supper. Grabbed it by the tail and carried it home [maybe 1/2 mile] to Elaine [eternally grateful for what wife put up with]. Sore biceps, as I had to hold it out away from its flailing paws. But, when a paw grabbed another paw, it quieted down for a while, having got hold of something. Culinary note, mentioned ages ago: opossums taste better than coons.
Hooray, the gates are open. Let the games begin!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecAllrVXr5w
Sorry: “… earlier. 2. Here is the high-tech … .” Peace,
Jackie:
Thursday morning, you wrote the following: “Rick, Ghost and I agree and we long for the old days. Ghost missed everyone terribly.
“We have both thought of dropping out too but we hang on because we love Jimmy and the strip. We hope Jimmy taking an active role will bring back the orphans and cause new ones to join us.
I sometimes fear we have contributed to the demise but Ghost thinks we have not, that we kept the door ajar.
“Can we change again and try?
I don’t know the answer to that. Sometimes, when things change, they die.
I have always read Jimmy’s comments. Lately, though, I have either only skimmed the posts of the readers or skipped them altogether.
Instead, I have been spending more time reading the posts for the daily strip.
Some posters here have referred to that forum as “The Dark Side.” With only one or two exceptions over the past several months, I have the posters to be polite, creative, and frequently humorous.
Morphy, there is a more prosaic explanation of how that bridge was yclept E C PEAK MEMORIAL BRIDGE. In my county, as in I suppose most, the county supervisors clepe roads and bridges for their buddies…when they are not busy naming county buildings for themselves.
Three cheers for a repaired ‘Database error’.
Ghost, how aptly apropos. Yes friends with mahogany paneling and large desks do things for each other. That truth continues even when the name auld boys club is no longer accurate. I just riffed on a theme with the starting point that you were probably not his only audience.
Rick, I’ve noticed the change as well. After GoComics settled on a visual format, they seemed to become more responsive to the flagged comments reports. After a bit more time, the remaining voices seem more interested in the art at the top of the page. Of course the Arlo&Janis page does not attract the same opinions as some others, which is nice.
I saw this on a Facebook page called Faraway Places.
We have in the gallery 24 Arlo and Janis comic strip originals, framed and matted under conservation glass, which I’ve been anticipating. Already we’ve sold one and you can claim yours, too, though we’re asking that you leave it at Faraway Places for the exhibition on Saturday, Dec. 2, 1 to 3 p.m. Cartoonist Jimmy Johnson will be in the house, and we’d like to have plenty of his work hanging. You can buy and leave with your Arlo and Janis t-shirts any time, however!
http://www.djournal.com/lifestyle/retiring-columnist-moves-on-to-faraway-places/article_a790d0d0-5116-5c39-a8e9-abd915cf8f31.html
I sure hope I was gentle with my elders when the started a well-known story. (I tried to be.)
Two reasons.
I am old and they are gone and hardly a day goes by that I don’t think of something none of them would have known, but they are dead and gone.
I am old now and aware of how much I know about stuff nobody gives a sheet about and I know how much it hurts me when somebody shuts me up (the worst is when somebody interrupts with “Hold that thought” and never goes back to the subject.
Thank you Mark but nothing shows up on link? I am interested in the pieces and how to contact the gallery.
Jimmy it says you are going to be there. How can we buy?
Gee, the story about Faraway Places came right up when I clicked on the link. All the way to up here in New Hampshire! (Ha ha, I know it doesn’t work like that.) It was very interesting. You would enjoy it, Jackie.
To Larry, I sympathize; altho most everyone seems interested in my stories. I remain cheerful, but I have outlived nearly all my friends and relatives. When I am alone I often talk to them, in my imagination, and it is pleasant to do so.
Southern people often talk to our relatives no longer with us. We don’t always go visit their graves in order to do so.
The question is are they answering us?
Ghost got it to open for me and yes, it sounds wonderful. I want to go but it is a seven hour drive each way. Ghost thinks it is too far and we have something else here.
But I want to meet Jimmy and Reta too. It is on my list. And I will perhaps.