Home  >> Stories  >> The Tale Spinner #2017-26

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IN THIS ISSUE

• In this Heroic Stories tale, a woman is reunited with her stolen treasures
• Jean Sterling comments on an article in last week´s Spinner
• Tom Telfer writes about an embarrassing incident
• Rafiki forwards an historical story about watch sales
• Shirley Conlon´s story is about the importance of friends
• Betty Audet sends answers to some obscure questions
• Catherine Nesbitt details occasions when the "F" word was appropriate
• Sites are suggested by Catherine Nesbitt, Shirley Coutts, and Tom Telfer

Lisa Vetitoe of Tennessee writes in Heroic Stories about

AN UNEXPECTED REUNION

In 1998 I rented a storage unit in a small community west of Nashville to help me organize my home. Inside I put my personal artwork: etchings, silk-screen prints, and the original plates they were made from. Also inside were photos, books, and miscellaneous stuff.

Five months later, when I returned to clean out my unit, I found someone had beaten me to it! The owner had known my things had disappeared and never reported it to me; instead he had simply re-rented my unit. I tried in vain for months to find my belongings: posting flyers, searching stores, even taking the owner of the storage unit to small claims court.

I was devastated to lose my art, and especially irreplaceable memorabilia from my school years 25 years earlier, including my "letters" (sports team initials to be sewn onto a sweater or jacket) from Junior High basketball in the 1970s.

Four years later, I received a call from a stranger who lived 30 miles away.

This woman had been to her local thrift store and found a box containing yearbooks from her son´s school. She purchased two, intending to give them to her son.

However, inside she found my name and a class reunion paper with my married name. She couldn´t believe someone would just give up these things, and thought there must be more to the story, that I might want them back. She searched for my phone number and called me immediately.

She graciously agreed to meet me at the thrift store the very next morning. I was so impressed by her willingness to go out of her way to meet me on a Saturday morning. She even asked what would be a convenient time to meet!

When I arrived at the store the following morning, an older lady with a sweet smile greeted me as I stepped from the car. Of course, she had my yearbook. Then we went into the thrift store, and I found the rest of my books, my diploma, letters, and a high school banner. I even found my son´s baby picture album, with newborn photos and clippings, which I had thought was still safely stored at home.

Not only did this woman refuse a reward, she wouldn´t let me repay what she´d spent on the books. The woman at the thrift store was happy as well to give me the remainder of the items she´d purchased at a nearby yard sale three months prior.

I still don´t know how these items ended up 30 miles north of where they started out, but getting them back was truly unexpected and wonderful. After a bad experience, this one act of kindness helps me to remember that for every bad egg, there are dozens of good ones to counteract their actions. Thank you again, Mrs. Strunk!

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

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CORRESPONDENCE

Jean Sterling comments on Barbara Wear´s article in last week´s Spinner about what happens when a man volunteers to do the cooking at a BBQ party:

This is SO true!

Tom Telfer writes about an incident involving

THE TOILET SEAT

My wife, Julie, had been after me for several weeks to varnish the wooden seat on our toilet. Finally, I got around to doing it while she was out shopping. After finishing I left to take care of another matter before she returned.

She came home and prepared to take a shower. Before getting in the shower she got undressed and then sat on the toilet. As she tried to stand up she realized that the not-quite-dry epoxy paint had glued her to the toilet seat.

About that time, I got home and realized her predicament. We both pushed and pulled without any success whatsoever. Finally, in desperation, I undid the toilet seat bolts. Julie wrapped a sheet around herself and I drove her to the hospital emergency room.

The ER Doctor got her into a position where he could study how to free her. (Try to get a mental picture of this.)

Julie tried to lighten the embarrassment of it all by saying, "Well, Doctor, I´ll bet you´ve never seen anything like this before."

The doctor replied, "Actually I´ve seen lots of them... I just never saw one mounted and framed."

Rafiki forwards this story about

BUYING A WATCH IN 1880

If you were in the market for a watch in 1880, would you know where to get one? You would go to a store, right? Well, of course you could do that, but if you wanted one that was cheaper and a bit better than most of the store watches, you went to the train station! Sound a bit funny? Well, for about 500 towns across the northern United States, that´s where the best watches were found.

Why were the best watches found at the train station?

The railroad company wasn´t selling the watches, not at all. The telegraph operator was. Most of the time the telegraph operator was located in the railroad station because the telegraph lines followed the railroad tracks from town to town. It was usually the shortest distance, and the right-of-way had already been secured for the rail line.

Most of the station agents were also skilled telegraph operators, and that was the primary way they communicated with the railroad. They would know when trains left the previous station and when they were due at the next station. And it was the telegraph operator who had the watches. As a matter of fact, they sold more of them than almost all the stores combined for a period of about nine years.

This was all arranged by Richard Sears, who was a telegraph operator himself. He was on duty in the North Redwood, Minnesota, train station one day when a load of watches arrived from the East. It was a huge crate of pocket watches. No one ever came to claim them.

So Richard sent a telegram to the manufacturer and asked them what they wanted to do with the watches. The manufacturer didn´t want to pay the freight back, so they wired Richard to see if he could sell them. So Richard did. He sent a wire to every agent in the system asking them if they wanted a cheap, but good, pocket watch. He sold the entire case in less than two days and at a handsome profit.

That started it all. He ordered more watches from the watch company and encouraged the telegraph operators to set up a display case in the station offering high-quality watches for a cheap price to all the travellers. It worked! It didn´t take long for the word to spread, and before long, people other than travellers came to the train station to buy watches.

Richard became so busy that he had to hire a professional watch maker to help him with the orders. That was Alvah. And the rest is history, as they say.

The business took off and soon expanded to many other lines of dry goods.

Richard and Alvah left the train station and moved their company to Chicago - and it´s still there.

Yes, it´s a little-known fact that for a while in the 1880s, the biggest watch retailer in the country was at the train station. It all started with a telegraph operator, Richard Sears, and his partner Alvah Roebuck!

Now that´s History!

Shirley Conlon forwards this article:

NEVER FORGET YOUR FRIENDS

Many years ago, a newly-wed young man was sitting on a couch on a hot, humid day, sipping frozen juice during a visit to his father.

As he talked about adult life, marriage, responsibilities, and obligations, the father thoughtfully stirred the ice cubes in his glass and cast a clear, sober look on his son.

"Never forget your friends," he advised. "They will become more important as you get older.

"Regardless of how much you love your family and the children you happen to have, you will always need friends. Remember to go out with them occasionally, do activities with them, call them...."

"What strange advice!" thought the young man. "I just entered the married world, I am an adult, and surely my wife and the family we will start will be everything I need to make sense of my life."

Yet he obeyed his father; kept in touch with his friends, and annually increased their number. Over the years, he became aware that his father had known what he was talking about. Inasmuch as time and nature carried out their designs and mysteries on the man, friends were the bulwarks of his life.

After 60 years of life, here is what he learned:

Time passes. Life goes on. Distance separates. Children grow up. Children cease to be children and become independent. And to the parents, it breaks the heart, but the children are separated from their parents.

Jobs come and go. Illusions, desires, attraction, sex ... weaken. People do not do what they should do. The heart breaks. The parents die. Colleagues forget favours. The races are over. But true friends are always there, no matter how long or how far away they are.

A friend is never more distant than the reach of a need, intervening in your favour, waiting for you with open arms or blessing your life.

When we started this adventure called life, we did not know of the incredible joys or sorrows that were ahead. We did not know how much we would need from each other. Love your parents, take care of your children, but keep a group of good friends. Dialogue with them but do not impose your criteria.

Refer this text to all friends who help make sense of your life.

I already did!

Betty Audet forwards the answers to some questions:

WHY?

WHY do men´s clothes have buttons on the right while women´s clothes have buttons on the left?

BECAUSE when buttons were invented, they were very expensive and worn primarily by the rich. Since most people are right-handed, it is easier to push buttons on the right through holes on the left. Because wealthy women were dressed by maids, dressmakers put the buttons on the maid´s right! And that´s where women´s buttons have remained since.

WHY do ships and aircraft use mayday as their call for help?

BECAUSE this comes from the French word "m´aide" - meaning "help me" - and is pronounced, approximately, mayday.

WHY are zero scores in tennis called love?

BECAUSE in France, where tennis became popular, the round zero on the scoreboard looked like an egg and was called "l´oeuf," which is French for the egg. When tennis was introduced into the US, Americans (naturally), mispronounced it love.

WHY do X´s at the end of a letter signify kisses?

BECAUSE in the Middle Ages, when many people were unable to read or write, documents were often signed using an X. Kissing the X represented an oath to fulfill obligations specified in the document. The X and the kiss eventually became synonymous.

WHY is shifting responsibility to someone else called "passing the buck"?

BECAUSE in card games, it was once customary to pass an item, called a buck, from player to player to indicate whose turn it was to deal. If a player did not wish to assume the responsibility of dealing, he would "pass the buck" to the next player.

WHY do people clink their glasses before drinking a toast?

BECAUSE in earlier times it used to be common for someone to try to kill an enemy by offering him a poisoned drink. To prove to a guest that a drink was safe, it became customary for a guest to pour a small amount of his drink into the glass of the host. Both men would drink it simultaneously. When a guest trusted his host, he would only touch or clink the host´s glass with his own.

WHY are people in the public eye said to be "in the limelight"?

BECAUSE the limelight, invented in 1825, was used in lighthouses and theatres by burning a cylinder of lime which produced a brilliant light. In the theatre, a performer "in the limelight" was the centre of attention.

WHY is someone who is feeling great "on cloud nine"?

BECAUSE types of clouds are numbered according to the altitudes they attain, with nine being the highest cloud. If someone is said to be on cloud nine, that person is floating well above worldly cares.

WHY in golf, are helpers called "caddies"?

BECAUSE when Mary Queen of Scots went to France as a young girl, Louis, King of France, learned that she loved the Scots game "golf." He had the first course outside of Scotland built for her enjoyment.To make sure she was properly chaperoned (and guarded) while she played, Louis hired cadets from a military school to accompany her. Mary liked this a lot, and when she returned to Scotland (not a very good idea in the long run), she took the practice with her. In French, the word cadet is pronounced "ca-day" and the Scots changed it into caddie.

WHY are many coin collection jar banks shaped like pigs?

BECAUSE long ago, dishes and cookware in Europe were made of dense orange clay called "pygg." When people saved coins in jars made of this clay, the jars became known as "pygg banks." When an English potter misunderstood the word, he made a container that resembled a pig. And it caught on.

Catherine Nesbitt shares the story of

THE "F" WORD

The "F" word has been used from the beginning of time. I thought it was an Olde Anglo-Saxon word. The Irish maids used the word "fewking," according to an olde British novel. But as you can see, the word is much older than that. Let us therefore give it the @#$%ing respect it deserves.

When is @#$% acceptable?

There are only 11 times in history where the "F" word has been considered acceptable for use. They are as follows:

11. "What the @#$% do you mean, we are sinking?" - Capt. E. J. Smith of RMS Titanic, 1912

10. "What the @#$% was that?" - Mayor Of Hiroshima, 1945

9. "Where did all those @#$%ing Indians come from?" - George Custer, 1877

8. "Any @#$%ing idiot could understand that." - Albert Einstein, 1938

7. "It does so @#$%ing look like her!" - Picasso, 1926

6. "How the @#$% did you work that out?" - Pythagoras, 126 BC

5. "You want WHAT on the @#$%ing ceiling?" - Michelangelo, 1566

4. "Where the @#$% are we?" - Amelia Earhart, 1937

3. "Scattered @#$%ing showers, my ass!" - Noah, 4314 BC

2. "Aw c´mon, Monica. Who the @#$% is going to find out?" - Bill Clinton, 1998

1. "There is no @#$%ing way Trump will ever become President!" - Hillary Clinton 2016

SUGGESTED SITES

Catherine Nesbitt sends this link to a video of Yosemite Falls in April, when rivers of frozen snow flow through the valley:

Catherine also forwards the URL for a video of an artist with a chain saw transforming a stump into a tribute to a fox and racoons:

Shirley Coutts shares this site of a typist accompanying the Philharmonia Orchestra:

Tom Telfer sends this link to a video of a flashmob in Holland recreating a famous painting of Rembrandt:

Tom also forwards the URL for a video of a "FrogLog," a device which helps small frogs and other animals to escape from backyard swimming pools:

In this TED talk, Jim Yong Kim, head of the World Bank, shares why he believes ending spoverty is possible in our lifetime, and concludes that the poor will not always be with us:

This CNN story tells about two immigrants who own a restaurant in Montreal offer free meals to hungry people who can´t afford to pay:

From Positive News, here is the story of a project that transforms shipping containers into emergency homes for homeless people:

This GoodNewsNetwork story is about a 10-year-old boy who invented a device that will save children from dying in hot cars: