|
 It was a contemplative kind of morning, with each
member of the vaunted World Dilemma Think Tank seeming content to
think silently for a change, just sipping on the coffee refills and
waiting for Loretta to bring more.
Steve, the professional cowboy of the bunch, was reading the house
copy of the Valley Weekly Miracle. Somebody else had already done
the crossword, the sports page was old news, and if he wanted to
keep up on church news, he’d probably attend every now and then. So
Steve was belly deep in the personal ads in the classifieds.
He looked more closely, then glanced around the philosophy counter
at his fellow thinkers. “Here’s something you don’t see every day,”
he said.
The room grunted in reply.
“I’ll read you the whole ad,” he said, “’cause it’s short.”
Doc looked up. “What’s it say?”
“Send one dollar to Box 87 here in town.”
“One dollar for what?”
“Doesn’t say. Just says to send one dollar.”
“You’re kidding.”
Steve handed Doc the paper and pointed to the ad.
“That’s what it says,” Doc said, nodding. [to top of second
column] |
So then the conversation got
going. Some were of the opinion that a mistake was made when the ad
was put in the paper, and you’re supposed to get a cookie recipe or
something for your buck. Others were of the school that this was
placed by some joker as a gag.
“When I was packing mules,” Steve said, “the pack boss swore he was
going to put a wooden box with a slot in it at the trailhead and
write ‘Scenic Route. One dollar’ and see if anyone was dumb enough
to pay extra for scenery.”
“Aren’t all those trails scenic?”
“Of course. He never did it, though.”
“And this ad,” said Doc, shaking his head. “How many people would be
dumb enough to just mail a dollar to Box 87 for no reason?”
Dud looked up and smiled. “Seven so far, Doc. Seven so far.”
[Text from file received from
Slim Randles]
Brought to
you by Home Country (the book), published by Rio Grande Press and
now available as a Kindle ebook on Amazon
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