Travels With Becky

When Guests Wear Out Their Welcome

Luci Byrnes of Hancock recalled a story her father, Leo Cormier, told about the Depression. Supplies were short and even though his family of eight—six kids and two adults—lived on a farm in Dalton, food wasn’t plentiful either. Some relatives from Maine began showing up on Sundays expecting dinner, which was okay for a few weeks, but the visits became a burden after awhile.

What to do? Something subtle, perhaps?

Whether it was mother or father who came up with the idea, it took two of them to carry out the plan. After dinner, they put the dirty dishes on the floor for the dog to lick clean.

The dog did a fine job.

Then, the coup de grace: they picked up the dishes and put them into the cupboard.

The Maine relatives never showed up for Sunday dinner again.

Lesson Learned

Nice visit with folks at the Litchfield Senior Center, where the minutes for the meeting will read: “Strawberry shortcake was enjoyed by all.”

Ken told the story of being a kid on Peaks Island in Maine. One day he traveled with his father to Boston. It was quite a trip from the boat to the bus in Portland to the train station then on the train to Boston.  

They got there all right. For a treat, they stopped at a deli to get some lunch. Ken spotted a big turkey leg in the case. He wanted that leg. The deli man said, “That kid’ll never eat that whole leg.” Ken’s father had his doubts, too. But Ken swore he could, begged for the leg, got the leg, and dug in.

Sure enough, he got that leg about half consumed and could eat no more. Father, being from Maine and therefore frugal, said there was no sense wasting a good half of a turkey leg. So the leg was placed in a paper bag and Ken had to carry it: to Fenway Park and the Red Sox game, then to the train station, then all the way to Portland on the train, then on the bus to the landing, then on the boat to Peaks Island.

By the time the day was done, he was awful sick of that turkey leg. Lesson learned.

As my grandmother would have said: “His eyes were bigger than his stomach.”