These are the thoughts of a Texas transplant in West Michigan who makes his living as a newspaper reporter by evening, and a struggling novelist by day.

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

check the back seat before cussing

it was both embarrassing and funny at the same time. i think that anyone wanting to cuss up a storm ought to check his or her surroundings before cutting loose. i obviously did not yesterday; hence, i'm writing this blog.

there was a call on the scanner about a fire in saugatuck, a small town south of holland at about 8 p.m. we neaded down there and on the way, heard that we'd run over something on the highway. when we finally made the turn off, the tire sounded odd. sure enough, we had a flat. and they were new tires, too.

we pull into a gas station. i'm pissed off. my phone rings and it's matt b. the photog who'd gone to take pics of the fire. i tell him my situation and he says he'll come right over. he does.

he pulled up in his van right next to our car. he says he'll help my wife put the doughnut tire on after he drives me to the fire scene. that way we'll get both doen quicker. i agreed but got more upset at the inconvenience of it all.

so he goes around to the driver's side and is moving things around. i open the passenger door and jump in. as soon as i shut the door, i let out a barrage of vulgar language at the situation.

(skip this if you'd like). "son of a bitch, motherfucker," i belted out.

as i said this, i half-looked toward the back seat and was thinking, i good thing he doesn't have his two kids with him. the cussing, the turning and that thought all raced through me in a milli-second.

i turned back and guess what? his two kids were strapped in their seatbelts in the back seat. i felt like shit, embarrassed, but couldn't help laughing. at the absurdity of it all. i apologized profusely to matt.

he said it was Ok. one of his kids, in fact, had just told him he knew all the f-words because he'd heard them some place. i thought it was quite ironic (or whatever the word is for the situation) that the kid gota first-hand lesson in an mf word.

i guess matt told his kids what happens when you cuss. as i left the van, he told his kids, waht do you say when people use bad language? they repeated in spanish "wash out your mouth with soap."

good times. good times in saugatuck.

1 Comments:

Blogger Leftylog said...

Excellent! When I blew out me knee, I taught an entire girls t-ball team all the bad words you could ever think of.

10:15 AM

 

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