When Pearlie first came to live with us she wanted a whistle. She knew there was one somewhere in her hoard but, despite her niece's best efforts, it could not be located. Then she wanted the niece to buy another whistle but I put the kibosh on that notion. The very idea of being whistled at like a border collie!
In time, as I sifted and disposed of Pearlie's hoard, I came across the whistle and very nice it is too. Lovely piercing tone to it, sweet to handle and easy on the eye. I immediately checked its value on eBay and found that it wasn't worth much. I did not tell Pearlie that I'd found it which was very bad of me but, knowing her, she probably nicked it from someone in the first place. I mean to say, family of girls, where would she get a boy scout whistle, other than by going through someone's cupboards. Did I ever mention that she's a bit of a magpie? I'm convinced she is currently stealing my teaspoons. I bet her handbag is full of them for I know the cutlery drawer isn't. Thing is I'll never know until she's dead as her handbag never leaves her presence. Oh well. If collecting teaspoons makes her happy then who am I to deny her one small pleasure?
But the whistle. I try to keep it on my person so that when I get one of those unsolicited calls I can say, "Just one moment. I'll just fetch Mrs Moser," then I get Pearlie's whistle and blast it down the receiver. Bert thinks this is a horrible thing to do, people only doing their job for which they get paid a pittance. I expect he's right. I'm just not a very nice person.
6 comments:
That would make a very nice pendant. Only don't wear it in the house. ;)
It would, wouldn't it? And always handy for whistling down the phone at those pesky callers,
A very neat whistle!
One of my many jobs in the past was activity director at a large retirement facility... there were several ladies that liked to pilfer spoons from the dinning room. Always tucked them between the mattresses. The most interesting was the gentleman who pilfered the prune juice...his little frig was jam packed with his booty.
I don't think Pearlie sees it as 'stealing'. She sees it as 'looking after' just in case there should come a worldwide shortage of teaspoons. When I finally had the chance to go through her hoard I found quite a collection of silver teaspoons that had previously belonged to me. No doubt that was what your ladies were doing. One day the boss would go in and announce, sad to say, there were no more teaspoons to be had for love nor money. And then the little voices would pipe up...
The man with the prune juice - perhaps he was saving it up to make moonshine?
My gentleman with the prune juice fetish, was a grumpy ol sweetheart and had the most interesting stories to tell.
I love grumpy ol sweethearts. It is what I aspire to if I live to be really old. Right now I'm just grumpy.
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