Had a little touch of nostalgia yesterday.

I happened to hear a real oldie on the "wireless" where they were playing some really old recordings. The one that triggered a fond memory was: Don't Sit Under The Apple Tree With Anyone Else But Me....sung by my dad one afternoon. He had a rather elaborate woodworking shop in the basement and had been bugging my mother for a new tool which I believe was a lathe. I know he was having problems with his old one. One afternoon he came walking through the house singing the tune mentioned above, but with his own words...something to the effect of: I Don't Have a Lathe To Use 'Cause My Wife Won't Let Me Buy It.

Well, mom had heard enough of his harping so she bet him he wouldn't sing that old tune in public. At the time, we had a huge apple tree in the side yard and her bet was he wouldn't sit under that apple tree and sing loud enough for her to hear in the house. If he did, she would relent on the new tool. Bad move on mom's part! Dad made her promise in front of me, picked up a lawn chair and marched out to the apple tree and commenced to sing at the top of his booming baritone voice. Now, you have to understand a couple things....at the time dad was the school superintendent of a consolidated school district in NW Iowa, and we lived in a small farming community named Ringsted. Population....600 approx., except on Monday nights when the stores stayed open until nine. In a town that size, if you sing in your side yard....by noon the next day everybody knows it. And it happened that the only auto repair garage owner lived next door on one side and the barber lived on the other. Mom was embarrassed and asked me to go out and tell him that's enough, but I wouldn't do it, said it was her idea. All the while, there sits dad, singing every verse and adding a couple of his own. Mom finally ran outside, pleaded with him to stop, which he did but only after he finished the current verse.

Dad got his new lathe, but he also had to do the shopping for the next few days because it got around town about the bet and mom was too embarrassed to go out for a week. That was back in the 40's, shortly after WWII, only been back to that town once since we moved away. Often wondered if our old house was still standing.