A Week That Was

When Lester was in seminary training for the ministry, one of the professors had this advice. Preach about what happened to you this week. I am taking that advice.

Last week I drove, uneventfully, over to the YMCA of the Ozarks to lead a class in the Elderhostel called "On the Bright Side." I had a wonderful class and they liked my games and humor so we got along well. My sister was with me and she also had a couple of hours on Ozark heritage.

On Thursday we were getting ready to share jokes we remembered from different stages of our lives. I planned to mention that little children find bathroom humor funny, then older kids like sexual humor, etc. I wear a clip-on mike at these events so that I can move around the room easily. I put one on, tested it for sound, and was ready. There were still five minutes until class was scheduled to start, so I decided to take a quick trip back to our bedroom (which was just around the corner from the meeting rooms) to use the bathroom. I hurried so that I wouldn't start the class late. I didn't realize until I was washing my hands that I had not turned the mike off.

When I walked back into the room I looked around quickly and saw that everyone was busily in conversation or working on the ever-popular jigsaw puzzles in the back of the room. I thought I had gotten by without anyone noticing my goof. I called the class together and apologized for being a minute late. I then noticed a group of four in the back of the room laughing among themselves. One of them said, "We heard a little water running." Then they all laughed harder. I explained to the class what had happened and tied it into the fact that as we get older, bathroom humor again becomes funny.

During the following weekend I met the family from home and our grandson and his family from Quincy, Ill., at a mall in Columbia for a quick visit and to see the latest great-granddaughter we had never met. She and her brothers were all very cute and we had fun with the carousel and play area for the children while we tried to snatch a few moments of conversation with the adults.

Later Lester and I had an enjoyable overnight with long-time friends (a retired minister and his wife) and attended church at Missouri Methodist in Columbia where another good friend is the senior pastor.

Our drive home down Highway 54 was enlivened with our memories of these friends who have shared so much of their lives with us. We stopped at Shoney's in Osage Beach to enjoy their breakfast bar and were seated at a booth near the bar. We ordered our drinks, and left our booth to fill our plates. When we returned we noticed the waiter had not brought our service or our drinks. I asked another waiter to take care of that. After eating awhile I reached for my date-book in my purse to clarify something we were talking about. The purse was not on the bench where I left it! I jumped up to get help from the staff, thinking someone had picked it up while we were loading our plates. The waitress asked for a description of the bag and started going up and down the aisles looking for it. Meanwhile Lester and I were looking under and around our table.

The waitress returned, asked me to come with her, and pointed to a booth two seats behind ours. My purse sat quietly at the far end of the bench and drinks and service were waiting for missing diners.

We had sat down in the wrong booth, and the poor waiter had taken care of us nicely but we didn't return.

In our relief we could still see the humor in the situation even though it wasn't a game I want to play again.