" When a thing is funny, search it for a hidden truth." - G.B. Shaw

One day when my dad was but a lad, his mum asked him to go to the store. This was in the aftermath of the Great Depression. A dime could get you a lot of things in those days - one of them was a quart of molasses. She put the coin into a clean milk bottle and sent him off to fetch her a quart of the grocer's finest.

At the store, the man behind the counter asked, "Sumpin' fer you, buster?"

Harold showed the note from his mother and placed the milk jug up on the counter. After filling the jar, the grocer demanded his payment. Harold said. "But, the dime was in the jar!"

The man held the jar over his head and, sure enough, there lay the dime beneath a quart of sticky, sweet molasses. He let my dad take the jug home, under promise to pay at the earliest convenience.

When Harold returned the next day with the dime, he overheard the man say, "See? I told you that boy would do the right thing."

I stopped in to see my Dad today - after my not-entirely-successful trip to the hardware store. He offered me an anchor drop, already made, for my new aluminum boat. It was one that he had built for his canoe, and it simply bolts on through the bow plate. Looks like it might be just the right thing... I'll let you know how it works.

Photo by Dave Dobson: October on the River Philip.