Home  >> Stories  >> The Tale Spinner #2017-21

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IN THIS ISSUE

• James Schrader of New York describes the kindness of strangers
• Kate Brookfield sends an overview of their spring trip
• Geoff Goodship writes about a sturdy washing machine
• Here are some humourous plays on words
• Tom Telfer forwards the best lawyer story of a year
• Zvonko Springer sends a tricky quiz
• Sites are suggested by Barbara Wear, Irene Harvalias, Judith English, and Tom Telfer

In Heroic Stories, James Schrader of New York, wrote about

IF YOU NEED ANYTHING

In 1974, my college roommates, Steve, Craig, and I drove to Yonkers from upstate New York to take Steve home for spring break. Returning, Craig and I took toll-free roads to conserve funds.

Sunday evening we got $5.00 worth of gas on a side road, saving 35 cents between us for one upcoming toll road. A mile later we heard a terrible grinding noise under the car, the brakes quit, and we rolled to a stop on a dark, deserted back road. The axle had separated.

With little traffic, we decided we had to flag down the next car and ask for help. When a car came, we stood in the roadway. After we explained our problem to the husband and wife who stopped, Craig went with them to find help while I stayed with the car. Soon a trooper stopped, put up flares, and radioed for a tow truck. Even though Craig had gone for help, he said he must move the car as soon as possible for safety. Half an hour later a tow truck arrived - and Craig was riding with the driver!

By 10:30 p.m. the tow truck driver had us at his garage. We said we´d sleep in our station wagon, but he´d have none of that, and brought us to a small trailer by his house. He gave us blankets and pillows for the night. The next morning we woke to a knock. When I opened the door, a woman introduced herself as the tow truck driver´s wife. She brought us into her home, gave us juice and eggs, saying her husband left to work on the car two hours earlier. She drove us to the station, where we thanked her over and over.

We learned the bill would be $65.00. We had no credit cards, no way of getting money other than our parents driving down - but they were at work.

The couple we´d flagged down had given Craig a number to call if we needed anything. So we called, and the husband gave us a restaurant address, saying, "Come by. I´ll see what I can do." With the car fixed late that morning, Craig stayed behind as ´security´ while I drove to the small roadside diner.

I asked for the owner, we sat, and I described our predicament. He asked what I had for collateral. I had 35 cents, my license, and the car registration. He said the registration was enough, opened the cash register and handed me $65.00!

After thanking him many times, I picked up Craig, paid the bill, and we drove home. My Mom sent a check immediately, and the registration arrived by mail a few days later.

Though time has erased their names, I´ve never forgotten what the people who helped us did. Since then I´ve always helped people in tight spots, and never been disappointed. I´m still trying to give back to others what I got a long time ago.

ED. NOTE: to comment on the above story, or to get your own free subscription to the site, click on

http://www.heroicstories.com

Kate Brookfield gives an overview of

THEIR SPRING HOLIDAY

Our spring trip this year started at the end of March and ended in early May. We flew from Toronto, leaving snow and ice behind, and stayed overnight in Montreal. The following day we took a three-hour flight to Guadeloupe in the Caribbean.

We had three days to get accustomed to the sun before we boarded the Costa Favolosa to cross the Atlantic, with stops at St. Lucia, Santa Cruz, Gibraltar, Marseilles, and finally disembarked in Italy at Savona.

Our first night in Italy was spent at a hotel in the coastal town of Ventimiglia. Our reason for staying here was to visit the famous Hanbury Botanical Garden that was a short, but uphill walk from our hotel. http://www.giardinihanbury.com/en/

From Ventimiglia we took the train to Genoa (Genova) and spent three days here before going to Milan. In Milan we rented a car and drove to Lake Como, the pleasure park of the rich and famous. This beautiful lake with the Alps as backdrop is where the Italian nobility built extravagant palaces with wonderful gardens.

Finally, we drove back to Milan and took a flight to London, and spent five days on the south-east coast in Devon, before returning to Canada on May 4th.

My blog at Word Press.org gives day-to-day accounts with photos of our trip. You are welcome to visit and follow the trip: www.canadatoeuropeitalyuk.wordpress.com

For the Spinner, I thought I would write a few articles on different aspects of our trip, starting with our time in Milan.

Geoff Goodship writes fondly about

OUR OLD WASHING MACHINE

This morning I´m enjoying a quiet sit after breakfast while Freddie bustles about the kitchen. I can hear the washing machine is already at work in the laundry room. Its purr is warm, rhythmical, and comforting. I drift into wondering how many loads of laundry that machine has washed.

It began service in the basement of an apartment building. Freddie and I bought that building when it was about four years old, a retirement plan. I assume the washing machine had already had four years service for 13 apartment dwellers when we bought it In 1983. The coin slot on the top had places for five quarters, but three were covered. A load of laundry cost 50 cents.

About 10 years later we retired and our son took over full-time management of the apartment. He decided that the washer needed to be replaced. It was still operating, so I took it to a local appliance repair shop for I knew the technician there, an older man. He said the machine was worth an overhaul. I trusted his judgment so I told him to go ahead with the work. His bill was about $120. That would be approximately August 1994.

That machine has been washing our clothes ever since, about 28 years. The sound coming from the laundry room this morning is still warm, rhythmical, and comforting. I wish more things in life were like that.

ED. NOTE: All together now - they don´t build things like they used to! And that´s the truth, because now we have "planned obsolescence."

From Sunday Family Humour comes this

HUMOUROUS WORD PLAY

1. My husband and I divorced over religious differences. He thought he was God and I didn´t.

2. I don´t suffer from insanity; I enjoy every minute of it.

3. I work hard because millions on welfare depend on me!

4. I used to have a handle on life, but it broke.

5. Don´t take life too seriously; No one ever gets out alive.

6. You´re just jealous because the voices only talk to me.

7. Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.

8. I´m not a complete idiot... some parts are just missing.

9. Out of my mind. Back in five minutes.

10. NyQuil: The stuffy, sneezy, why-the-heck-is-the-room-spinning medicine.

11. Consciousness: That annoying time between naps.

12. Ever stop to think, and forget to start again?

13. Being "over the hill" is much better than being under it!

14. Wrinkled was not one of the things I wanted to be when I grew up.

15. Procrastinate Now!

16. "Actually, I have a degree in Liberal Arts, thanks for asking. Do you want fries with that?"

17. A hangover is the wrath of grapes.

18. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a cash advance.

19. Ham and eggs: a day´s work for a chicken, a lifetime commitment for a pig.

Tom Telfer sends

THE BEST LAWYER STORY OF ANY YEAR

This actually took place in Charlotte, North Carolina. A lawyer purchased a box of very rare and expensive cigars, then insured them against, among other things, fire. Within a month, having smoked his entire stockpile of these great cigars, the lawyer filed a claim against the insurance company. In his claim, the lawyer stated the cigars were lost in a series of small fires. The insurance company refused to pay, citing the obvious reason, that the man had consumed the cigars in the normal fashion.

The lawyer sued and WON!

Delivering the ruling, the judge agreed with the insurance company that the claim was frivolous. The judge stated nevertheless, that the lawyer held a policy from the company, in which it had warranted that the cigars were insurable and also guaranteed that it would insure them against fire, without defining what is considered to be unacceptable fire, and was obligated to pay the claim.

Rather than endure a lengthy and costly appeal process, the insurance company accepted the ruling and paid $15,000 to the lawyer for his loss of the cigars that perished in the "fires."

Now for the best part:

After the lawyer cashed the cheque, the insurance company had him arrested on 24 counts of arson! With his own insurance claim and testimony from the previous case being used against him, the lawyer was convicted of intentionally burning his insured property and was sentenced to 24 months in jail and a $24,000 fine.

This true story won first place in last year´s Criminal Lawyers Award contest.

Zvonko Springer sends this quiz to make us feel better:

TRICKY QUIZ

Something for seniors to do to keep those aging grey cells active, and for younger ones, to get them growing!

1. Johnny´s mother had three children. The first child was named April, the second child was named May. What was the third child´s name?

2. There is a clerk at the butcher shop who is five feet ten inches tall and he wears size 13 sneakers. What does he weigh?

3. Before Mt. Everest was discovered, what was the highest mountain in the world?

4. How much dirt is there in a hole that measures two feet by three feet by four feet?

5. What word in the English language is always spelled incorrectly?

6. Billy was born on December 28th, yet his birthday is always in the summer. How is this possible?

7. In California, you cannot take a picture of a man with a wooden leg. Why not?

8. If you were running a race, and you passed the person in second place, what place would you be in now?

9. Which is correct to say, "The yolk of the egg are white" or "The yolk of the egg is white"?

10. If a farmer has five haystacks in one field and our haystacks in the other field, how many haystacks would he have if he combined them all in a third field?

Answers:

1. Johnny, of course.

2. Meat.

3. Mt. Everest - it just wasn´t discovered yet.

4. There is no dirt in a hole.

5. Incorrectly

6. Billy lives in the Southern Hemisphere.

7. You can´t take pictures with a wooden leg. You need a camera to take pictures.

8. You would be in second. Well, you passed the person in second place, not first.

9. Neither, the yolk of the egg is yellow.

10. One. If he combines all of his haystacks, they all become one big one.

ED. NOTE: I must have seen these questions before because I knew all the answers.

SUGGESTED SITES

Barbara Wear sends the URL for a video of the fastest ship the world has ever seen:

Irene Harvalias forwards this link to a video of Dave Carroll singing "United Breaks Guitars," after United Airlines refused to pay for damage to his property:

Judith English shares this link, which has 99 reasons why 2016 was a great year for humanity:

Tom Telfer sends the URL for a video of beautiful animation in support of polar bears:

Tom also sends this link to a video of an injured baby deer that was adopted and looked after until she could return to her original family:

Here is a video of some of the many birds that visit Toronto´s Tommy Thompson Park, a famous migration spot for birds making their way north:

For these troubled times, Howard Zinn offered a ray of hope that things will improve if people do not despair, but persist in making a better world for all children, everywhere:

In this TED talk, Rutger Bregman maintains that poverty isn´t a lack of character, it´s a lack of cash - and the problem can be solved by a basic income: