Home  >> Stories  >> The Tale Spinner #2018-35

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IN THIS ISSUE

• A plumbing truck driver is the hero of this Heroic Story
• Shirley Conlon forwards the seniors´ calendar for September
• Catherine Nesbitt shares the story of an avid golfer
• Irene Harvalias sends the story of a clever solution
• Barbara Wear sends a clever gramatical definition
• Carol Hansen suggests an interesting site

Cathy Weber-Zunker from Minnesota tells the story of

THE PLUMBING TRUCK DRIVER

I didn´t see the child... I didn´t see anything at all except a plumbing and heating truck at a complete stop, on the opposite side of this busy street. It´s a small town in Minnesota, with a park that´s divided into two parts by a street. That street is an issue in our town; the park is gated and fenced for safety because of it.

The truck coming from the opposite direction was a good distance from the crosswalk between the two parks. I stopped ... because he stopped. Checking the streets and crosswalk, I saw no one. I stayed stopped ... because he stayed stopped.

Traffic that was headed for fast food lunches on this day in April 2006, was backing up behind me, as well as backing up behind him. We don´t experience traffic backups often in our little town.

A gasp caught in my throat when I finally saw what the truck driver saw. As if in slow motion, I saw a child, appearing not yet to be three years old, smiling and unaware of danger. Without being noticed, he had escaped the fenced park and was running playfully onto the roadway. With ease the little boy could have reached out and touched the grillwork on the stopped truck.

The man in the truck watched as a red-faced, frantic young mother raced into the street. The child, enjoying the game with his mother, merrily turned and ran the other way in the bright sunshine - toward the middle of the street.

The man in the truck was now quickly out of his truck, like a linebacker with his feet planted and arms spread. The boy was rapidly surveying his options: his mother on one side, an imposing linebacker on the other.

The choice was easy. The little guy went rushing into the arms of his mother. I exhaled as the mother and child reunion took place, and the man got back into his truck.

With the child back in the safety of his mother´s arms, I turned the corner onto Tenth Avenue, my eyes clouded with tears.

There was a young mother that day who had the privilege of taking her child home, whole and intact. There was a little boy, able to grow up. There was a plumbing and heating man who would rest well that night, knowing that today he saved the life a child.

Then there were the rest of us - the ones who witnessed an enormous act of kindness. People from my little town, people who sat and watched someone save a life. Not one horn honked, not one driver yelled out of a rolled-down window - we all calmly and patiently helped save a life that day. The statement, "It takes a whole community to raise a child" means more to me today than it did before I encountered that truck driver.

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CORRESPONDENCE

Tom Telfer, referring to my question about anyone receiving spam e-mails, writes: Yes, I receive many e-mails, telling me about weight loss. Someone is hiding in a corner, sending out thousands of messages. This person must be paid by the company selling their program.

Shirley Conlon sends this month´s illustration from the seniors´ care home:

SEPTEMBER

GIANT

Joanna Trachenberg, 81 and Horst Krischat, 78

Catherine Nesbitt forwards the story of

AN AVID GOLFER

An avid golfer is involved in a terrible car crash and is rushed to the hospital. Just before he is put under, the surgeon pops in to see him.

"I have some good news and some bad news," says the surgeon. "The bad news is that I have to remove your right arm!"

"Oh God no!" cries the man. "My golfing is over! Please Doc, what´s the good news?"

"The good news is I have another arm to replace it with, but it´s a woman´s arm, and I´ll need your permission before I can go ahead with the transplant."

"Go for it, doc," says the man. "As long as I can play golf again."

The operation goes well and a year later the man is out on the golf-course when he bumps into the surgeon.

"Hi, how´s the new arm?" asks the surgeon.

"Just great," says the golfer. "I´m playing the best golf of my life. My new arm has a much finer touch, and my putting has really improved."

"That´s great," said the surgeon.

"Not only that," continues the golfer, "my handwriting has improved, I´ve learned how to sew my own clothes, and I´ve even taken up painting landscapes in water colours." . "That´s unbelievable!" says the surgeon. "I´m so glad to hear the transplant was such a great success. Are you having any side effects?"

"Well, just two," says the golfer, "I have trouble parallel parking; and every time I get an erection, I also get a headache."

Irene Harvalias shares the story of

THE IRISH VIRGIN AND THE POSTAL WORKER

In a tiny village on the Irish coast lived an old lady, a virgin, and very proud of it.

Sensing that her final days were rapidly approaching, and desiring to make sure everything was in proper order when she died, she went to the town´s undertaker (who also happened to be the local postal clerk) to make proper "final" arrangements.

As a last wish, she informed the undertaker that she wanted the following inscription engraved on her tombstone:

"BORN A VIRGIN, LIVED AS A VIRGIN, DIED A VIRGIN"

Not long after, the old maid died peacefully. A few days after the funeral, as the undertaker/postal clerk went to prepare the tombstone that the lady had requested, it became quite apparent that the tombstone she had selected was much too small for the wording that she had chosen. He thought long and hard about how he could fulfill the old maid´s final request, considering the very limited space available on the small piece of stone . For days, he agonized over the dilemma, but finally his experience as a postal worker allowed him to come up with what he thought was the appropriate solution to the problem. The virgin´s tombstone was finally completed and duly engraved, and it read as follows:

"RETURNED UNOPENED"

Barbara Wear forwards this story about the difference between

COMPLETE AND FINISHED

No English dictionary has been able to adequately explain the difference between these two words - complete and finished. In a recent linguistic competition held in London and attended by, supposedly, the best in the world, Samdar Balgobin, a Guyanese man, was the clear winner with a standing ovation which lasted over five minutes.

The final question was: How do you explain the difference between complete and finished in a way that is easy to understand? Some people say there is no difference between complete and finished.

Here is his astute answer: "When you marry the right woman, you are complete. When you marry the wrong woman, you are finished; and when the right one catches you with the wrong one, you are completely finished!"

He won a trip around the world and a case of 25-year-old Scotch!

SUGGESTED SITES

Carol Hansen forwards the URL for a video of the 9/11 boatlift that rescued half a million people by water in nine hours after the twin towers in New York fell:

In this TED talk, Ryan Harb tells os how they created the first Public University Permaculture Garden, and explains hw to use permaculture to make a difference in our community and in the world:

These four conservation success stories show that people really are making a difference:

In this video we see how a Dutch-Ghanaian company are turning garbage in Ghana into profits. The collecting, sorting, assembling and transportation of all the plastic waste employs about 500 people before the recycling even begins!

Andrew Austin discusses the differences between living in the US and in Sweden, where he has lived for six years: