The Slice Previews Of Tales To Come
We haven’t forgotten about our intention to share readers’ skiing-accident stories. Soon. We promise.
In the meantime, here’s a sledding story (actually it was a saucer).
About 20 winters ago, Electric City’s Darlene Price broke her ankle on a snowy hill during an outing with her Girl Scout Troop. Help was summoned. And most of the girls gathered around their fallen leader.
“But my youngest daughter checked out the situation and decided to keep sledding,” wrote Price. “Every time she went down the hill, she waved and said ‘Hi, Mom!’ “
Hey, whatever gets the kid to do it: Three-year-old Emilie Burgess has been receiving instruction about the importance of washing one’s hands. And the other day she recited the reasoning for this component of good hygiene. “We wash our hands because there are worms on them.”
Her mom, Theresa, is pretty sure she meant “germs,” but added “With 3-year-olds, you never know.”
Overheard at an ear, nose and throat/hearing aid clinic (a sixtyish woman commenting in a deadpan way on the over-the-line raucous behavior of some little kids tearing around the waiting room): “Their parents must be hard of hearing.”
When early is too early: “Our neighbor, whose back yard is kitty-corner from ours, put up his Christmas lights this weekend,” Spokane’s Kevin and Michelle Robinette wrote a few days ago. “The display is rather large and includes a large star and a full-size plywood Santa and reindeer. Upon seeing them for the first time, our 3-year-old daughter, Marie Elise, exclaimed, ‘Oh! Is that a store?’ “
Everything is relative: The folks at Spokane’s Covenant Christian Church were fretting about errors slipping into the congregation’s newsletter. Then an anonymous person sent the Rev. Michael RiceSauer a list of mistakes collected from newsletters across the country. It put things in perspective. One of the bloopers read “Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our church and community.”
Enemy air: Joel Bonvallet overheard a man in downtown Spokane complain that cold weather made it hard for him to breathe. But Bonvallet had a hard time working up much sympathy when he noticed the guy was smoking a cigarette.
Today’s Slice question: What was the tensest moment you ever witnessed at a Thanksgiving dinner?
If your brief in-writing answer arrives at Slice Headquarters by noon on Nov. 22, you’ll be eligible to win a gift certificate for a turkey.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Drawing
MEMO: The Slice appears Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. Write The Slice at P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; fax (509) 459-5098. Real Northwest men know how to make “secret recipe” aphrodisiac hot chocolate.