Husband of the Year

My dad's secretary Nelda once gave him a rattlesnake in a jar to take home to my mother. He hated snakes, hated them, but he said, Because I love Margie so much, I'm going to put this in my truck. He tucked the snake in its glass pickle jar in the very back of the cab of his pick-up truck and drove home after work. After an abrupt stop at a red light, the jar slammed into the back of his seat and broke. He jumped out of his old green truck and put his hand on his heart. Two of his employees happened to be driving behind him and came running to his aid, thinking he was having a heart attack. There's a rattlesnake in my truck, my dad said. People loved my dad. Lots of people believe this about their fathers, but this is my proof. The couple coaxed a poisonous snake out of his truck and into the grass and calmed him down in the middle of a fairly crowded intersection.

He drove home and much to the disappointment of my mother, he returned without the snake. It was the perfect size, Don, she said. I could have done something with that snake in a Texas mold. Do you know where it went? Of course, the story became the stuff of legend and at his company picnic that summer, he got awarded Husband of the Year for his bravery. They made him a banner, like a Miss America sash, which he got to wear for pictures. There would be lots of sadness after these days that could have never been predicted, and everybody mentioned in this story is now dead. But in Mexico there is a belief that as long as the living still remember your name, you have not died your final death on this earth. And so I offer this story as one of the happier ones of my parents' marriage and as proof that at least for one summer, my dad, at least in Mineral Wells, Texas, was the best husband a woman could ask for.

Michelle's Spell of the Day

"You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on." - Dean Martin

Cocktail Hour

Drinking movie selection: Leaving Las Vegas

Benedictions and Maledictions

Thanks for all the wonderful Thanksgiving comments! I hope everyone is having a lovely Friday, sleeping the food/drink hangover off or shopping or just seeing where the day takes them. Happy Friday!