6.03.2010

The Old Man and The Bottle of Mustard

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Where I live is swampy, low country, and high water table.
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So we have lots of ditches on the side of the road.
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One day I was driving on a road a street over from my house to get out of the neighborhood when I spotted a bottle of mustard, in the shape of this one, in the side of the road.



It isn't your typical mustard shaped bottle, I admit, but I knew it was mustard right away. (I dig mustard, I would know) At first I thought it fell from garbage can to garbage truck. After driving past it was few more times, I realized it was a whole bottle full. Quite possibly never opened.
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I thought about how maybe next time I drive by it, I should try to run over it just right, and see how far that bottle would squirt.....
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Did I say that out loud?
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I meant to say, pick it up and dispose of it.
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Days pass, I never drive over it, nor does anyone else. Then one day I drive by and a van is in the ditch. Not head on, but as though the driver intended to just pull over but didn't realize the ditch was so close and so deep. It was stuck for sure. As I drive past, I see it's a very elderly man. And I see that just as I am noticing the situation, so are a few men, and so I drive on by, because those men would be much more help with a van in a ditch than I would be.
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I ran my quick errand and when I was coming back home they were in the process of towing the van out of the ditch. I have to stop and watch because there is no getting past them until the job is done. I realize someone else is behind the wheel of the van and the elderly man is walking about, watching his (now) scratched up van get dislodged. All the while, he is holding the bottle of mustard. As he's shaking hands, thanking his good Samaritans, checking out the damage done, and not putting the bottle down.
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4 comments:

Sister Black said...

aawww! Poor little old man...and all that for a bottle of mustard (that "someone" should have already picked up or squashed) Now...don't you feel bad? (0:

Sister Black said...

Oh! And speaking of mustard...I saw a recipe for raspberry mustard (I think that's what it was) in one of my magazines the other day. Do you want it? It was mixing dijon with preserves or something. Let me know

tricki_nicki said...

Ha! Was he going to get it or swerving to avoid it??

The Crash Test Dummy said...

OH NO!!! You could have averted all that danger, girlfriend. There's a moral to this story. There's a definite moral.