SAY WHAT?

Last night I enjoyed a fun little get together with three longtime pals, Conlee, Mary, and Eldon--FHS Class of 1967.  Two still live in the old hometown, and the other was back from Michigan for a few days.  We ended up at a dive bar near the town square...it was a western wear store when we were kids.  My how time changes the town's commercial scene.    

Like all reunions of this sort, large or small, conversation encompasses a little bit of everything--childhood paper routes, school pranks, college days, all the way up to the present time and who is doing what. There were bundles of laughs all around (including my impersonations of a certain girls phys. ed teacher) until one of the guys broke the levity by saying, "Did you hear that Larry's in a coma?"

Larry is Eldon's cousin and also a classmate.  He's a doctor who lives in Washington.

Mary and I gasped.  "Larry's in a coma?!" I repeated.  "When did that happen?  What caused it?"

"No!" Eldon laughed.  "I said Larry's in Tacoma!  The city!" 

"Oh, thank god!  I thought you said he was in a coma!" Mary chimed in that she'd heard the same as I had.  

So, of course, the guys thought our mistaken hearing was hilarious, and the rest of the night was one big coma joke after the next.  At one point Conlee's wife Roxi called from Michigan, and he told her, "If you get an email from Nancy telling you that I'm in a coma, don't believe a word she says."  

Mary and I contend that we are NOT hard of hearing.  It was just noisy in the joint, and our jumbling of the  message was understandable---well, mis-understandable, actually.  

Tomorrow:  adventures of going to the bar restroom