The Things You Overhear

I'm lucky. I've got the best in-laws in the world. I would pit them against any in-laws you could find in a cage match of coolness and mine would win every time, hands down.

I won't go into details, but just as an example, there is a story my father in-law likes to tell about a couple they ran into on vacation.

They were vacationing down south. I don't know where, but as at least one quarter of the globe is south of here, your guess is as good as mine. They were traveling to or from their destination and stopped along the way to eat at a Cracker Barrel restaurant. After finishing their meal, Mom decides to visit the powder room before they get back on the road to cover many, many miles. Dad waits by the drinking fountain with another guy about his same age who is obviously waiting too. The man nods his hello and just kind of looks about with a bored look on his face and doesn't say a word. After a few minutes a women exits the ladies room and walks towards the guy and his face lights up, and in a loud voice that the whole establishment can hear he calls out to her, "Well, did you drop your mud?"

The whole place bursts out in a fit of laughter and the woman covers her face and doesn't even look up as she goes through the front door. The guy shrugs his shoulders and follows.

Dad likes to tell this story when they have polite company and Mom, to this day, still cringes at the woman's embarrassment. It has become a running joke in the family and is repeated at restaurants and parties whenever you have to wait for someone to come out of the bathroom.

In what way does this story prove their coolness? It doesn't. I just like to tell it, and they give damn good hugs. I hope you are as lucky, and be sure to wash your hands.

Doc