Mom's Wit
by Janet H. Brown

  Life in general for my family is quite stress free, except for those occasional glitches that are thrown in to keep me on my toes. This is a glitch in my daily routine that needs to be told. 

 My friend and her daughter came along with me  to watch my daughter's softball game in Binghamton. My friend always has a good outlook on life, and on this day I really needed one.  

 When the softball game was finished - we won 2-1 - we talked about  how good it would be  to stop and get some ice cream. When I unlocked the car door, the car's alarm  system went off. No matter what I did it would not turn off. Beep, beep! Honk, honk! Flashing lights! The alarm system shut off, but started again as soon as I tried to open the door! Beep, beep! Honk, honk! 

 My friend called AAA and  they were very polite and gave us instructions on how to turn off the alarm system and reset it, and that if that didn't help, suggested we disconnect the battery cables. It didn't work - we weren't able to disconnect the battery cable. My friend and her daughter looked at each other, shook their heads, and laughed. This always seems to happen when we get together.  

 I called my very busy husband who, with a grumble and a few short words, came to help. But, after  working on the alarm system, disconnecting and reconnecting the battery cables, the alarm system wouldn't reset. My stubborn husband, who doesn't like to give up, just looked very hot. I mean hot because the sun beating down on him and hot because the car wasn't being cooperative.  

 My friend said  something needs to be done now, so I called Beck's Towing (625-5653 - this is not a shameless plug - see ad, page 2) and  left a message. I told my husband let's go home. We left in my husband's air conditioned car, but we didn't get any ice cream. My car will be towed to Nick's Garage for repairs (see ad, page 8!). 

 I hope my friend and her daughter will laugh, because you see while I was waiting for my husband to arrive, I sat in my hot car, afraid to open the door (the windows were open though), because I didn't want the car to go Beep, beep! Honk, honk! anymore. It just wasn't what I had expected.

 Editor's Note: They just don't make cars like they used to! And if you want to see some of those good old cars that they used to make, come to the Antique Car Show on August 24 at the Hickories (See ad, page 7. PS. Ok, this really is a shameless plug! See ya there!)