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 The problem was Mrs. Doc, you see. Oh, don’t
misunderstand. She’s a perfectly wonderful lady and we all think the
world of her, and as far as we know she has yet to burn down a house
or start a war or anything.
The problem is, we don’t know her first name.
If you just come out and flat ask her, she’ll smile and say, “Well,
don’t you think Mrs. Doc is a nice name? I’ve had it for a long time
now.” But I guess there’s something deep inside us that hates a
vacuum … a vacuum of knowledge, that is. We’re still curious about
exactly where Old Man Jenkins’ cabin is, for example. While he was
alive, we never thought to bug him about where he lived, because we
also cherish a man’s right to privacy. But Jenkins died on one of
his trips to town, and we still didn’t know where his cabin was.
So that began a number of semi-serious expeditions into our nearby
mountains to try and solve the mystery. Hasn’t happened yet, but
there’s always hope deep in the souls of true explorers.
And so it is with Mrs. Doc. She introduced herself to all of us as
Mrs. Doc, and … as wife of our local sawbones … she automatically
deserves respect, even if that respect means maintaining a mystery.
But in a way, Mrs. Doc has added something tangible to our little
society here in Home Country, because if we should ever falter for a
subject of intense discussion, we have her first name to fall back
on. Doc’s a true pal, of course, but there’s
no way he’d betray his missus on this. We did ask him one time if he
actually knew her first name. He gave us the strangest look and
said, “What do you think? I met this girl in college named Mrs. Doc
and asked her to marry me?” [to top of second
column] |
The speculation has run the
gamut of everything from her having a first name meaning a poisonous
flower, to body parts, battleships, national parks, and disastrous
storms. If we did accidentally trip over her real name, neither she
nor Doc would confirm it.
So while we’re looking for Jenkins’ cabin, we can contemplate that
very nice lady … Mrs. Doc.
[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.
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