It
was Windy Wilson’s turn, unofficially, of course, to pick a coffee
counter topic of learned truth and everlasting beauty. We sorta took
turns without keeping score.
“Ya know,” said the old camp cook, “Been thinkin’.”
We gave him a second or two. Didn’t work.
“About what, Windy?” said Doc.
“’Bout leisuractuvely activities. You know, what to do when you
ain’t doin’ nothin’ else.”
We grinned and sipped. Good topic, Windy. This works.
“I like to read catalogs,” said Herb. “You can get all kinds of
ideas in them. Don’t much care, really, what kind of catalogs,
either. So what if I don’t know a thing about wrist watches? I can
always learn.”
“With me,” said Doc, “it’s fly fishing. When I’ve had a hard day
with lots of patients, I just want to go down to Lewis Creek and
whip the surface film into a froth. Doesn’t even matter if I catch
anything or not.” “I hear ya,” said Dud.
“It’s a little different with me. Working on writing that mystery
(“Murder in the Soggy Bottoms”) takes it outa me, you know? So I
like to spend my leisure time reading things other guys wrote. After
about an hour of reading what some other poor soul suffered through,
I’m ready to go fishing with Doc.” [to top of second
column] |
Doc looked over at Windy, who
had initiated this topic, but strangely seemed content to sit there
and listen to the leisurely ideas of others.
“What about you, Windy? How do you unwind?”
“Well, Doc, glad you asked. Them kids was on their way home from
school jest t’other day and I come crost ‘em when they wasn’t payin’
too much tension. And I could see they hadn’t figured out anythin’
leisure, you know? So I told ‘em ‘bout my sure-fire way to relax.
What I do is set down on the front porch and think about fun stuff
while I pick scabs off the neighbor’s dog.”
[Text from file received from
Slim Randles]
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