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Life is tough. Nuns are tougher.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Before the Parade Passes By


Holy cow! The Freemasons actually showed up here to comment about my comments on the Freemasons! How did they find me so fast? I wonder if the commenter is the William Donohue of Freemasons. If so, I hope they don't sputter so much, because some day Mr. Donohue is going to go the way of Zim.

Did I ever tell you the story of Zim? When I was a little girl growing up here, Zim had the best ice cream shop in town. My father took us there several times a week during the summertime. Fantastic milk shakes! On the way home my dad would toss his empty milk shake cup down the sewer while making a left turn onto 18th Street. That's why we have Global Warming.

But I digress.

Zim shared his parking lot with the OshKoshb'Gosh store. He had two parking spaces marked with giant wooden ice cream cone placards and he guarded the spots jealously. If you parked at his place he would come steaming out of his shop and yell at you. He would come right up to your car window before you could roll it up (all hand crankers back then) and yell, "Where are you going!!??" And you would say, "I'm going to get ice cream." And he would say, "Oh." Then he would steam back into the shop.

I wonder what would have happened if you jumped out of your car and skipped into OshKoshb'Gosh and grabbed some overalls. I imagine Zim would have the police on you.
I should mention at this point that Zim weighed about 300 pounds. As I said, his milk shakes were superb.
One day my mother was downtown there with my aunt and they heard sirens. She said to my aunt, "Ha! I guess Zim had a heart attack screaming at someone in his parking lot!" They both had a good laugh over that. Except that is exactly what was happening.

Zim survived. A year or so later we heard he had had another heart attack. And we all said, "Hope he wasn't out there screaming at someone in his parking lot!"

He was. I hope his tombstone is big wooden ice cream cone that says, "What are you doing here!!?" on it. And I hope he's in heaven, because I'd love one of those shakes again i fI make it there.

Sometimes you just have to enjoy the ice cream and stop worrying about where everyone is parked.

10 comments:

pamdemonium said...

My Dear Sister,

I hope all is well with your family....sorry 'bout Zim.

Today at work we had a doctor asking for discounts for a computer.

She was, oh, at least 350 lbs.

Do you think she should be worrying about a discount at this point?

I know that the good Lord (bowing head)
says something about gluttony, and since it's partially related to ice cream, I thought you may have a response to this.

Bless you sister!

pm

Margaret in Minnesota said...

Wonderful story, beautiful blog.

Have a blessed day, Sister!

Anonymous said...

My grandpa must not have liked Zim. We went across the river for ice cream. He always shopped at Oshkosh, though. So did my dad, until it closed a few years ago.

Sharon

Justine said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Traveling Man said...

My good Sister:

Yes! The Masons have found your blog. You write well and I find it highly entertaining.

We, like most, have some few of us who are adept at the digital arts and enjoy gadding about the Internet in search of the insightful and thought provoking.

Be Well,

Traveling Man

P.S. Have no fear Sister, my blood pressure has remaind quite stable while visiting you.

TM

David Peronnet, RA said...

Am I to far off to see the spiritual side of your closing sentence?

"Sometimes you just have to enjoy the ice cream and stop worrying about where everyone is parked."

Are you implying something about the grace / mercy of God (ice cream) and where people are trying to see it (parked)?

Alice Gunther said...

Dear Sister,

I loved this story and look forward to more!

Anonymous said...

Sometimes you have to enjoy the ice cream and stop worrying about where everyone is parked. Good advice, SMM. We should all stop pointing fingers and enjoy where we can all agree.

At least, that's what I got out of that comment.

Bless you!

radio45 said...

Having a hard time sleeping so I started reading your blog (no offense meant... you write wonderfully). I had to laugh about your dad tossing his cup out the window. My dad did stuff just like that.

AnchorMama said...

So. That's why we have global warming. I knew those "scientists" didn't know what they were talking about!