Cliffooooorrd!
I stopped in a restaurant for lunch today. It was a decent enough place where they cook your food to order along an assembly line based on your desires. The downside of a place like this is that there is usually a line, but to pass time there were some old photos hanging on the walls.
Now I've always been interested in old news and I'm fascinated to watch how people lived years and years ago. I remember the time I found the newspapers my mother had saved recounting JFK's assassination. I sat on the floor reading every word in those yellowed papers. I've saved the papers for the lasy thirty years or so, hoping that one of my kids will be interested, but I suppose the Internet will devour such a thing.
So, I was fascinated with a photo of happy couples playing miniature golf in 1940. The photo showed the men dressed in suits and ties and the women wearing long evening gowns as they putted the greens. For a moment I was right there with them, regal as they spent a night on the town.
The next photo showed a listing of prizes at a carnival. The photo was also from 1940and first place in the three-legged race won you $5.00 in a gift certificate for the sponsoring drug store. The winner of the men's 100-yard dash won $15.00. I wouldn't run 100 millimeters for just $15.
Yet what really caught my attention was the prize for the "Husband-Calling contest". First place was worth three bucks.
"What's a husband calling contest?" I asked one of the other patrons.
He shrugged. "Could it be just what it sounds like?" He asked.
And I thought of my wife yelling out my name, "Clifooooorrd!" she calls making it sound almost comical. The kids usually laugh as she playfully calls for me.
Yet she wouldn't be even close to the $3 purse - there are many more frantic calls that would win such a contest. I think of my mother-in-law and her short, choppy, angst-ridden call of "Johnny!"
I think of my mother yelling, "Fuzzy! For Crying Out Loud."
And then there was my Grandma Fuzzy who called out Cah! Cah! as she chopped at an area below her waist when she grew aggravated with her own Johnny.
No doubt - Husband-Calling.
We could put it on television as a reality show.
Except the prize nowadays would be a million dollars.
Now I've always been interested in old news and I'm fascinated to watch how people lived years and years ago. I remember the time I found the newspapers my mother had saved recounting JFK's assassination. I sat on the floor reading every word in those yellowed papers. I've saved the papers for the lasy thirty years or so, hoping that one of my kids will be interested, but I suppose the Internet will devour such a thing.
So, I was fascinated with a photo of happy couples playing miniature golf in 1940. The photo showed the men dressed in suits and ties and the women wearing long evening gowns as they putted the greens. For a moment I was right there with them, regal as they spent a night on the town.
The next photo showed a listing of prizes at a carnival. The photo was also from 1940and first place in the three-legged race won you $5.00 in a gift certificate for the sponsoring drug store. The winner of the men's 100-yard dash won $15.00. I wouldn't run 100 millimeters for just $15.
Yet what really caught my attention was the prize for the "Husband-Calling contest". First place was worth three bucks.
"What's a husband calling contest?" I asked one of the other patrons.
He shrugged. "Could it be just what it sounds like?" He asked.
And I thought of my wife yelling out my name, "Clifooooorrd!" she calls making it sound almost comical. The kids usually laugh as she playfully calls for me.
Yet she wouldn't be even close to the $3 purse - there are many more frantic calls that would win such a contest. I think of my mother-in-law and her short, choppy, angst-ridden call of "Johnny!"
I think of my mother yelling, "Fuzzy! For Crying Out Loud."
And then there was my Grandma Fuzzy who called out Cah! Cah! as she chopped at an area below her waist when she grew aggravated with her own Johnny.
No doubt - Husband-Calling.
We could put it on television as a reality show.
Except the prize nowadays would be a million dollars.
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