S.O.B.

            It may be a strange name for a church group.  But don’t be quick to complain.  That is a group of men at the local Presbyterian Church at North Palm Beach, Florida who gather together once a month to spend a night cooking bar-b-q and other good foods for a dinner to support some good venture.  It is for men only except for once a year at Valentine’s Day when couples are invited. They work hard and it is almost impossible to overstate just how fine that experience is once every month.  They recruit the boy scouts to help serve and clean up, which they do with smiles and gusto.  They get speakers who almost everyone would be anxious to hear.  They play games and laugh together. The good time is one that many, many in this area await each month to be a part of. 

            I am one of those! Even though the food is always excellent the thing that draws me is the fellowship.  It isn’t even the church I normally attend and I really do not know most of the people there, however I am always impressed by the fellowship all seem to experience and enjoy.  The men in our home fellowship group do normally attend and we all feel blessed when we do.

            I said I don’t know many who are one of the S.O.B.’s but I do know one rather well.  His name is Bill Inman.  He married a girl Linda and I have known and loved since she was born.  As you might suspect he now has a wonderful family.  And his spare time is well spent.  He doesn’t look for accolades but I want to take this opportunity to publicly say, “Thank you, Bill along with all of your friends who make up the Sons of Bar-B-Q!”  You are doing a great service for our community.

Carole Cidargrin

Carole Cidargrin

            If you have been reading any of these blogs you are aware that I have recently been writing about memories.  It dawned on me that they were getting boring to me and I am certain for you as well.  So beginning today I will be back to writing stories that may be partially true but mostly a figment of my imagination. Please enjoy any of them if you have nothing better to do.

Thanks, Bill (or Willy, whatever you prefer.)

Now for today’s story:

            Hector was a really smart student but somewhat lacking in common sense. He was a big guy who made clumsy an easy to understand term.  But everybody seemed to like Hector.  So he fit in with his friends even though they were never able to know what to expect in his behavior.  And Hector liked the girls.  But as we all expected he had a terrible time just even getting acquainted with any of them.  We all tried to help in that regard but at the time none of the rest of us was all that good with the girls, either. But being the kind bunch that we were we decided to get a girlfriend for him.  But when you considered the qualities of Hector the pickings were slim.  But the day came when we all decided to introduce him to Carole Cidargrin.

            Carole was a very smart girl with about the finest personality one could imagine.  She was not one who many would call the beauty of the year but she was really cute. She had a way about her that made most boys her age always take a second look.  And her smile would cause most boys to slobber.  I am reasonably certain that everybody loved her.  I think that is because she was always sincerely nice to everyone.  So we felt that she would be the right one for Hector.  It we got him to ask her out she was not the kind to refuse him simply because he was shy.  And we knew that she would go out of her way to make him feel good, no matter what he said or did.  You can tell that we put a lot of thought into this matter.  And so we talked Hector into calling her for a movie date. He wanted to call her but was scared that she would turn him down.  We had to talk a long time to convince him to call her but finally we did.  We all stood beside the phone and listened to every word he said and all of us applauded when he hung up.  She had said yes.

            Did I mention that Carole had a good sense of humor?  Well she did!  We all felt good around her and would call her names like ‘Pine giggles’ or ‘Hemlock laughter’ and she would laugh along with the rest of us. I think all of us wanted a date with Carole but we finally decided that it was only fair to give Hector the first try.  And so it happened.

            It was a Friday night when Hector picked up Carole for that first date.  It probably wasn’t the first date for Carole but we knew it was for Hector.  There were four of us hiding in the bushes at the dorm watching to see what Hector would start his special night off with.  She was so nice to him when she came out to meet him that we all agreed that he was almost resting easy.  They left and we were unable to follow them to the movie so we did what any good person would have done.  We came back to the bushes at about the time when he would be bringing her back to the dorm.  We sat there anxiously waiting until that special moment – the time when he would tell her good night. 

            The dorm was a colonial style building with several large Ionic columns around a front porch.  That was the usual place for the much awaited goodnight kiss.  What would Hector do?  So we waited.  And we waited. And we waited until finally they came walking up to the porch.  They were both laughing.  It looked like they both were having a good time, especially Hector.  As they walked to the only column left without good nighters’ Hector suddenly stopped laughing and looked straight into Carole’s eyes maybe to tell her about the great time he had.  We were not sure about that because we couldn’t hear them from under the bushes.  But we did see him move closer to her, gently taking her hand and…..

            Crazy Norman Piccolo all of a sudden jumped from behind the bushes and yelled to the top of his voice, “Hey, everybody, Hector is about to kiss Carole Hemlock Laughter.”  

            It was good while it lasted I guess.  I still think of those days long ago when Hector and Carole were our friends.  Too bad Norman was there to stop that forever.  I heard that in later years they got married but I am not sure.  None of us was invited to the wedding.  Serves us right, don’t you think?

            P.S.  Carole and Hector were (and may be still) real people.  Norman was not.  If he was real then he would probably be dead now.  His real name will be forever secret.  The story was almost real. All were very good friends!