Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Linda, episode 4... What Goes Around

Linda, episode 4 What goes Around

When Linda and I first got married we were Juniors in College in Dahlonega Ga. We knew we would get married eventually and thought what the heck, why put it off. It was a great decision.

Anyway we had an apartment across from the church where we held the ceremony and reception and when it was over we walked across the street for our honeymoon.

(Old lyrics come back to me)

Those were the days my friend
I thought they’d never end
We’d sing and dance and laugh the night away
There was another line
That has slipped my mine(d)….
Those were the days
Oh yes those were the days.

In the living room was a gas furnace and one Fall day I asked my bride how one went about lighting the darn thing. She said, “you open the little door, turn on the valve and hold a match under the burner eyes.”

I turned on the valve and looked around for some matches and saw some on the end table. I got up and walked over…”So I turn on the valve and light the bank of gas ports….right?“ Returning I squatted down and struck the match…. GABOOM! went the furnace and sure enough it lit, but so did my eyebrows and the hair on my forehead.

Linda hollered…. “Oh my Gawd!” and rushed out from the kitchen. When she saw I wasn’t dead and only a bit singed she began laughing hysterically and called me a “dumb-ass.” She told all our friends in class later that day and everyone teased and gave me a hard time.

Now Linda had gotten into a bad habit that fall. She sat on the furnace after a shower and dried her hair. When it wasn’t running a person could sit on the grate withoutsuffering any ill effects. However the next morning after her shower the thing had been running a couple of hours. When she flopped her butt unsuspectingly down, it was really hot and she let out a holler. On her fanny was the imprint of the grill etched like a branding iron. The burn was not sever, but blistered and painful and I had to go to the drug store to get her some salve. Then I had to help her apply it… Woe is me

That day I told everyone in class about Linda’s new blister grid… She was really embarrassed and wasted little time in getting back at me. “Not tonight Bob…That burn you’ve been telling everybody hurts like the dickens.”

Now the point of this is that one should never laugh too hard, even in jest, at the misfortune of another…..because what goes around comes around. We figured out what that meant before the term became popular and it served our marriage well.