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In a community where everyone knows how many times a day each person
brushes his teeth, and how many teeth each one of us has, this was
something of a miracle. George isn't a young man, and he'd been
widowed for more than 10 years. His children were grown and gone,
except for Elwood, his son who lives just out of town on a little
place out there. The amazing thing was, we discovered, Elwood didn't
know about this, either.
One day George showed up at church with a very friendly lady on
his arm and asked Pastor Jeff if he could speak for a second. Jeff
said sure, and George stood and introduced Judy, his new bride, to
the congregation.
Immediately, the underground telegraph went to work.
The beauty parlor investigative team sprang into action. Who is
Judy? Where's she from? Who are her people?
Your people are very important here, of course, as we are firm
believers that the acorn doesn't fall far from the tree.
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column]
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Elwood was waylaid one morning as he foolishly walked past the
beauty parlor. He was snatched in as though hooked to a vacuum
cleaner. All he knew, he told them, was that Judy seemed really
nice, and that she was from the city, and that his dad and Judy had
written each other for a long time.
The term "mail-order bride" was bandied about by one or two
members of the curler crew, but of course it wasn't true and didn't
take. He courted her fair and square by postage stamp until they
both got computers and made faster connections.
George told us. We cornered him for coffee one morning and asked
about the courting procedures and all that. He told us he "had" to
get married.
Our jaws dropped, and then he laughed and said he "had to get
married because I couldn't afford the phone bill any more."
A guy that good at keeping a secret in this valley would make a
great spy.
[Slim Randles]
Brought to you by
"Sun Dog Days"
at www.unmpress.com.
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