I enjoy the story telling talents of Garrison Kiellor , well known for his radio show, The Prairie Home Companion. He once told a story about the mind set being one of the unpopular kids in Grade School while all the other kids were exchanging Valentine cards. He reminded me of the tear a part pages that our parents bought at the local Woolworth’s or Five and Dime store, the kind that all the kids would give to their friends during class time; all except the two or three unpopular kids. Those kids would wait around for the card that wasn’t coming. The teacher would take some cards from the stacks of cards that the most popular kids had; they’d never miss a couple of cards, erasing the name of the one child and writing over with the name of the unpopular kid so he/she’d get in on the celebration. Garrison Kiellor may have been that awkward child sitting alone waiting, noticing the teacher’s hand writing over the erased smear and acknowledging his lonely state, resigned to such a fate that would likely last a life time. He did a wonderful job of explaining those feelings, why else would it have remained with me all these years.
I much preferred his story of the Cherry Picker going down the road leaving tracks in the snow, as if made by the Abominable Snow Man, to cover up the fact that they had accidentally hauled several miles of telephone cable down from the poles as they crawled to a halt in a snow storm. I’m so glad I live here in Houston where a little frost on the roof can be imagined as a harsh winter storm.
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