The Slice: There are all sorts of legacies

John Barringer’s mother died quite a few years ago.

But the Rosalia resident still remembers her last words.

“Don’t let anyone get my huckleberries.”

Slice answers: Dee Hargitt told a story of memorable vocal stylings.

“When my brother Ron was in high school (Lewis & Clark) and the choir director (Gerald Hartley) was auditioning singers for the men’s glee club, he suggested that Ron ‘mouth’ the words.”

Sylvia Beach shared this.

“I grew up in a small town in northeast Oregon. There was a young man about 12 years old that attended the same church I did. He was an enthusiastic singer, singing in a fairly loud voice and a flat monotone. One song in particular was interesting. Not only was he tone-deaf, he might have been a little hearing impaired as well, or just not paying a lot of attention.

“Whenever we sang ‘Toiling On’ he would sing in his loud flat tone, ‘Toilets On.’ No one ever told him he was singing it wrong. I think everyone just got a kick out of hearing him sing it that way with such enthusiasm.”

This date in Slice history (1992): Today’s Slice question: Why doesn’t anyone in Spokane understand that before charging onto an elevator you are supposed to see if people need to get off?

Birds aren’t the only enemy of convertibles: “Several years ago my husband, Marc, looked out his business window onto the Newport Highway,” wrote Nancy Kiehn. “Traffic was stopped at a light, and in the inside lane was a double decker livestock transport trailer (the kind with holes in the sides) filled with cattle. In the outside lane was an open convertible. Before the light changed, one of the cows let loose an enormous quantity of fresh manure, spraying through the hole in the side of the trailer into the car and onto its occupants. Always have wondered how they got that mess cleaned up.”

When a fly gets in: “We point it out to our cats and then sit back and enjoy the show,” wrote Bill McLachlan. “Actually, the cats usually let us know a fly is in the house.”

Terrie Roberts offered this. “I have to catch it quickly, before my indoor cats see it and demolish the house trying to catch it.”

Today’s Slice question: What’s the most you would pay for a concert ticket?

Write The Slice at P. O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. If Janet Culbertson was going to have sidekicks, she might pick Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis (Thelma and Louise).