Mount Pleasant Tribune (Mount Pleasant, Tex.), Vol. 146, No. 80, Ed. 1 Wednesday, September 16, 2020 Page: 4 of 9
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Page 4 •TribNow.com
Sept. 16, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
My bed was already on fire
‘bed on fire already.’
pens when you know the bed is on fire, and yet you
Texas Blue Norther and 25 below
0
0
r
A
Seud Q leHer Hr Me Editor
editor@tribnow.com
est environment I was
ever in. One time I found
myself stranded on an is-
land in the archipelago of
Sweden in the Baltic Sea.
The air temperature at the
time was 25oF below zero.
But the wind was not
blowing and it did not re-
Have you ever been
cold? I mean really cold?
So cold that your teeth
chattered and your body
seemed to be going into
a defensive condition.
Well I guess I was not
about to die but I had
the feeling that I was go-
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A Story
Worth Telling
by LEON ALDRIDGE
leonaldridge@gmail.com
Coffeetime
By Dr. Andy and Renie Bowman
Memories &
Reflections
By Ken Howard
TONI ROWAN
Publisher
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DI DUNCAN
Editor
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went ahead and got a tat-
too of another woman’s
name on his stomach.
Didn’t exactly help his
cause. Definitely ‘bed on
fire’ when he did that.
Or when a woman de-
cides to get into a rela-
tionship with a guy that
Phone 1-903-572-1705
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8 a.m.-5 p.m.
A book title, “It Was
On Fire When I Laid
Down On It” caught
my eye a few years ago.
Curiosity being what it
is, I looked up the story
behind that title. True
story. A small local fire
department was called
Facing the effects of
sheltering in place
“Unfortunately, my social
distancing practices did not
include my refrigerator
— Overheard at the doctor’s office
Somebody’s timing on this pandemic was way off.
Cooler temps lately are hinting that Fall is near which
means Christmas will be here before we can find a
mask to fit Santa and eight tiny reindeer.
It also means that I am ill-prepared for the holidays;
a time that is very difficult for me without a virus, be
it novel or run-of-the-mill. It’s not the holiday deco-
rating. It’s not even Christmas shopping. It’s holiday
meals. I love to eat and holiday food is nothing short
of heavenly.
Coming off the summer season, I’m typically a few
pounds lighter and dreaming of drumsticks and de-
lightful desserts ahead. However, confined to home
and the gym being closed had a significant impact on
my eating and exercise habits this year. And now, here
I am going to my annual checkup this week to face the
effects of sheltering in place.
Habits, so I once read, are easily modified in less
than two weeks. Set goals for a new behavior to eat
less and eat healthily, endure short-term pain while
your body adjusts, (no pain—no gain), and the new
way of eating becomes a new habit. I have only one
question. Who says eating is a bad habit?
And that word diet has a bad connotation. Maybe
just me, but I never could make one work. I don’t un-
derstand calories, carbs, sugars, and all of that label
stuff. Besides, who can stay on a diet when there’s
leftover banana pudding in the refrigerator. I’m just
not one to make small talk at Thanksgiving dinner
like, “this dessert has only four grams of sugar.” I’m
the one declaring, “Wow, that pecan pie was out-
standing. I don’t know about you, but I’m going back
for seconds.”
I just hope my checkup this week goes better than
the time my report suggested new eating habits in-
cluding my salt intake and something called MSG.
Trying to exercise more caution in what I eat, the very
next time I was dining out, I asked the waitress if their
menu items included MSG.
“One moment,” she replied. “I’ll find out.” She was
back in a flash to report, “The cook sends his sincere
apologies that we do not have MSG but says he will
attempt to locate some and have it on the menu soon.”
Then there was the time the nutritionist tried to ex-
plain healthy to me. “Things that should be avoided
for a long and healthy life,” she said, “include nitrites,
MSG (there’s that word again), tyramine and phenyl-
ethlylamine. I had no issues with eliminating that last
one, I’m not eating anything I can’t pronounce. That’s
one more reason why I don’t read labels.
“What is tyramine?” I asked. “Produced by fermen-
tation,” she said. “Foods that are aged, smoked, fer-
mented, or marinated plus chocolate, most cheese,
Chinese foods such as soy sauce ...”
“Hold it right there,” I interrupted. “You lost me at
chocolate and cheese. Not going to happen.” I had
learned enough to understand that healthy eating
doesn’t necessarily enable you to live longer; life just
seems longer having to eat all that boring, tasteless
food. I left and went straight to the burger joint. “Dou-
ble meat and cheese all the way,” I boldly proclaimed
at the counter, “with jalapenos and a chocolate shake.”
I know healthy eating is wise, but for me, eating is
one of life’s heavenly little pleasures—which reminds
me of the story about the married couple that ar-
rived in heaven on the same day. St. Peter was show-
ing them around pointing out, “Here is your cottage,
you’ll enjoy the lush gardens with every form of year-
round fruit, the golf course is next door, and down the
road is your own private tropical beach.”
Surveying the surroundings, the old gentleman said
slowly to his spouse of many years, “See how nice this
is. Just think, if you hadn’t been feeding us that aw-
ful-tasting healthy stuff all these years, we could have
been here a long time ago.”
I wonder if my doctor has heard that one?
■ '
•up MEMBER
I B JL 2019
TEXAS PRESS
ASSOCIATION
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Like the old boy who was struggling in his marriage, lay down on it.
He knew that breaking up was not what he wanted.
He didn’t really feel like coming home to an empty Comments to: andybowman839@gmail.com
apartment every night. But yet, for some reason he Coffieetimecolumn.com
to put out a house fire. They also found and rescued a has already lost two marriages due to domestic abuse
man trapped inside. Some days after his rescue, it was - that is jumping into a “bed already on fire.” When a
determined that the fire had begun with the mattress person has donated his rent money to the casino and
where he was found. Later, the local media asked the is borrowing more to “double down,”...oh yeah, “the
man about the cause of the blaze. bed is on fire.”
Quote, “I don’t know, it was on fire when I laid It is one thing if bad stuff happens that you can’t
down on it.” see coming and you can’t predict - that occurs to ev-
What?! He knew the bed was smoldering, yet he laid eryone at some point and it is inevitable. But, folks,
his body down and went to sleep anyway? This is truly when you can smell the smoke and see the flames,
hilarious and sad at the same time. Funny, because and yet you decide to go ahead and leap into that bed
the visual just somehow tickles the funny bone. Sad, - that is insane! As the old saying goes; ‘Learn to look
because it sounds way too much like a few folks we all before you leap.’ But even better; ‘Learn to look and
know. Danger ahead for them is as plain as the nose sniff, and then don’t leap.’ Otherwise you may wake up
on their face. And yet, they plunge headlong onto the to find your life going up n flames. That’s what hap-
ing to freeze to death way back one time. It was up in ally seem that cold. When we started out the weather
December and we were out working in the cotton field was fairly decent. But, we had an accident and finally
in West Texas. We were not very far from the house, made it to an island where we spent the night. It had
In fact the cotton field ran up into the yard. The good been snowing. The snow was rather deep, but fortu-
cotton had already been picked and we were going nately someone had been logging in the area and an
through trying to get the few remaining bolls. It was adequate supply of firewood had washed up and was
very slim pickings. All of the family was out there in- easily available. And the question comes up about the
eluding the young three and five year old kids. Winter water freezing. As you know the ocean is salty and it
was upon us, Christmas was coming and we needed a does not freeze at 320. It does freeze but it takes much
bill of groceries. colder to do it. The point is I had the unfortunate expe-
We had been working all day and the weather was rience of being in the water with the air temperature
not very cold. In fact it was rather mild. But about at 250 below zero. Now, following the idea of the story
dark as we were continuing pulling the cotton, one of you would think that that was the coldest I have ever
Texas famous blue northers blew in. If you’ve never ex- been. No it wasn’t. When you go into the water at that
perienced a Texas blue norther in West Texas you re- temperature you would think that you become shiv-
ally escaped one of life’s miserable moments. You will ering cold. That’s not the case either. There was one
be working along not thinking about the weather and tiny sting as the intensely cold water touched my skin
within 10 or 15 minutes the weather will take a drastic and then there was no sensation. The coal water had
drop. Such was the case on this day. I had on a short anesthetized my skin.
sleeve shirt as I remember. And when the blue north- Well needless to say I didn’t stay in there very long
er hit it seemed to just devastate your body. I stood it and neither was I baptized in it. It was a very interest-
as long as I could and then I asked my dad if I could ing experience but one you don’t want to repeat on a
go in the house and get something warmer to wear. I daily basis. However, it would be a lot easier way to die
was so relieved to hear him say that we were going in than to spend months or years in a nursing home not
the house in a few minutes. I remember going into the knowing who you were.
house and they turned on the butane heater. That was I am against the death penalty except for those who
a glorious feeling. It was one the coldest I have ever reallydeserveit. And the state bureaucracy keeps daw-
been in my life and you can imagine the relief to be dling back-and-forth on how they’re going to execute
able to go inside a warm house away from the blowing these poor souls. You would hope that our well-paid
wind. bureaucrats would at some point express a bit of cre-
But as difficult as that time was it was not the cold- ativity in solving some of their problems.
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Duncan, Di. Mount Pleasant Tribune (Mount Pleasant, Tex.), Vol. 146, No. 80, Ed. 1 Wednesday, September 16, 2020, newspaper, September 16, 2020; Mount Pleasant, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1429394/m1/4/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Mount Pleasant Public Library.