Thursday, May 08, 2008

Leaf Us Alone

My GranDaddy was a taciturn man. When he spoke, he meant to be heard. He thought a lot, he read a lot, and only uttered words when they would have an impact. Subtle impact was acceptable in his book. As a matter of fact, his humor was subtle and dry. And very effective.

My Mother recently re-told me the tale of GranDaddy running the lady off from their camp. The story goes that they were camping at some lake quite a number of years ago. There was a gregarious woman at a nearby encampment who felt welcome at their site.

She apparently spent quite a bit of time there, and since too much empty talk (especially by an interloping stranger) tended to get on GranDaddy’s nerves, he went down to the lake to swim. After a time, he was ready to come back to camp, and saw that the friendly neighbor was there still.

His remedy for that was to go back down to the lake and pick one of the giant-sized water lily leaves. This he brought back up to the edge of the bivouac area, holding it in front of himself at waist level.
He raised his voice (a rare occurrence) and asked if someone could go bring him some pants, since he lost his swimsuit in the lake.

Their new “friend” looked and saw him standing there dripping, holding a giant leaf as a garment, as far as she knew. Her immediate reaction was to vacate the vicinity.

The family rolled with laughter following her departure when he finally dropped the leaf to reveal that he had not indeed lost his suit.

But he had succeeded in losing the uninvited guest.

2 comments:

Rob V. said...

Immodesty is the best policy.

Wollf Howlsatmoon said...

Heh...Grandads are the Best for stories....might I share?

Grandfather and I, yup, back in the Sixties, went downtown to the hi rise Gummint building...all of 24 floors.

Our Business was concluded, we started down, and at the 20th floor we were stopped.....door opens, and this frantic,LOUD man, jumps in and screams, "This **effer going Down?!!"

Grandfather replied rather quietly, "A-yup".......The door closed, and He continued.....

"Goin' Down First....."

Gave that scary man the Wollf smile, and down we went, with no more stops. Just quiet *moans* from the man.....

Grandfather gifted me with my rather odd sense of Humour that day as a Cub.....Loved that Man.