Slim Randles' Home Country

The appurtenance relegated to me

[September 17, 2015]  Mrs. Doc (we know she must have a first name, but keeps it a secret) joined the other ladies in the quilting tent at the state fair. It was so exciting. It was the first time she’d ever entered a quilt in the competition, and she was nervous.

There was a lot of competition this year. The quilts didn’t carry the maker’s name, of course. For the purposes of judging, each was assigned a number. Her number was 536. It was pieced together flawlessly, she thought. It was a double wedding ring pattern, and any quilter knows how hard that one is to make. The quilting competition is judged on three things: originality, how well it’s sewn, and difficulty.

Finally the judges carried out a folded quilt and were about to name the blue ribbon winner.

They opened it up and held it up for everyone to see, and there were both groans (as the ladies realized it wasn’t theirs) and little gasps of astonishment (when they saw how pretty it was). The quilt had a ranch scene on it. A bunkhouse, corrals, a mesa in the background, and white and grey fluffy clouds. A tree filled one corner.

“That’s amazing,” Mrs. Doc whispered to the lady next to her. Her neighbor nodded.

“The winner of the blue ribbon for best quilt this year,” said the judge, “is this picture quilt … number 207. Sewn by Alphonse Wilson.”

There was applause, of course, and Mrs. Doc turned to Anita Campbell and said, “Windy?”

She nodded. Alphonse is Windy Wilson’s real name.

[to top of second column]

The old cowboy philosopher and butcher of the English language smiled and waved and walked up to get his ribbon.

“Mr. Wilson,” said the judge, “this is a great quilt. How did you find time to do this?”

“Wellsir,” Windy said, “I seized the appurtenance relegated to me between plays of football on the television.”

[Text from file received from Slim Randles]

Ol' Jimmy Dollar is Slim Randles' first children's book.  The book is for kids K-3rd grades and is even better when parents read it with children.  Ol' Jimmy Dollar makes for sweet dreams and if you have a dog even better.  Available now on Amazon.