Jokes Should Be For Laughter That All Concerned Can Share

Everyone likes a joke. Especially a good one.

You know, the kind that just happens and when you try to retell the joke, you can hardly get the words out for laughing so much. Now, everyone else is laughing because you are. Well, that’s a good joke, when all parties involved are laughing.

Recently, I was the tail end of a very cruel joke. I work as a teacher at the Martin Luther King Jr. Family Outreach Center. One day my co-worker, Brenda, told me: “Call Linda; she is looking for single-parent families in need of furniture.” So I call Linda, who helps families connect with resources, and she gives me a number to call. I try three times but no luck.

The next day, I went into my office, called the 800 number and left my name and number. About 20 minutes later I am talking to a Chaplain Franklin and he is telling me to go to a furniture store on East Sprague. He said he worked for an airline that was donating money for seven families to get new furniture. I could hardly believe my ears.

My emotions were all mixed up - I was happy, excited, nervous and a little doubtful. When I got off the phone, I couldn’t wait to share the good news with my friends at work. My thoughts were racing. Not only was I getting new furniture, I got to pick out what I like, not just some leftover inventory. I couldn’t believe my good fortune.

I returned to class very excited and resumed playing with the kids, trying to calm down.

On my lunch break, I drove to the furniture store and picked out two bedroom sets, a living room set and a dining room table. The store said they’d deliver it as soon as the check arrived from Chaplain Franklin.

The next evening, I hear from Linda that the whole thing was a scam. She’s having the situation looked into.

My first feeling was anger. How could anyone just play with people’s emotions and not care? Then I was sad, not just for myself but for the other families, as well. I know their excitement was just as great as mine.

Well, a few days have gone by since I wrote this. I started out just writing for myself in my journal. That’s how I get rid of things I don’t want to carry around with me. I write them down. But this time, that wasn’t enough. I needed to share this experience with others and warn them. And I have done that now.

MEMO: Your Turn is a feature of the Wednesday and Saturday Opinion pages. To submit a Your Turn column for consideration, contact Rebecca Nappi at 459-5496 or Doug Floyd at 459-5466 or write Your Turn, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210-1615.