george wrote:
Hi R S-S
Before I retired I had in mind to try and get a collection of funny experiences from a variety of jobs, that is a great one. Any more anybody? R S-S would you kindly revert to large type, having been on the computer a little time my eyes are struggling. You always have very interesting contributions.Thank you.
george
Hello George,
Well here’s another one for your forthcoming book which we are looking forward to with great anticipation.
I shall change the names to protect the identity of the people concerned for reasons that will shortly become apparent.
A friend of mine had a father who had a job where he came into contact with household products but mainly in bulk quantities. For instance he may have had a box of 60 paper towel rolls. That sort of thing; anyway you know what I mean George.
Now his job meant that he spent only weekends at home and the rest of the week he was ‘on the road’.
Because he had access to household supplies some of these somehow found their way back to his home; yes I know he shouldn’t have but he did.
In those far off days some liquid items were in plastic gallon containers and the contents were identified by a stick-on label which somehow managed to fall off and get lost so they were not able to be sold so my friends Dad could ‘legitimately’ take them home. The company knew what was going on but turned a blind eye to it.
One Friday night Bill arrived back home and took some of this unsellable stuff and put it in his garage. There were toilet rolls, soap, and gallon containers of bleach, anti-freeze and washing-up liquid.
He went into the house and told his wife Mary that he had got some toilet rolls etc and she asked if he had any washing-up liquid as she was nearly out. He certainly had and it was on the bench in the garage. She did not need it then but would get it on Monday when he was back at work.
Monday arrived and Bill set off on his rounds and being a good family man phoned his wife each evening to see if everything was OK and to say goodnight to the kids.
The first night he phoned and Mary said a couple of the kids had missed school because of stomach upsets and she did not feel on top form herself. But after a good night’s sleep she was sure they would all be fine.
Tuesday night Bill phones and things are a bit worse; all three kids are of school and his wife feels terrible. They must have picked up a bug from somewhere.
Wednesday night Bill phones and the doctor has been out and he has arranged for two of the kids to have blood test in the morning and he says there is ‘nothing going around’ so he’s not sure what the problem is.
Thursday night Bill phones again and Mary feels really poorly and all the kids are in bed and can’t eat. Bill says he will come home early tomorrow.
When he arrives home everyone looks dreadful and none of them can eat or drink much. Well Mary makes him his tea and soon after he doesn’t feel too good himself.
Rather than moan he starts to make small talk to Mary and asks what the new brand of washing-up liquid is like. She said it was OK but it did not produce many soap suds. After about half an hour the penny started to drop and Bill went into the garage and took the top of the gallon can on the bench and yes it was washing-up liquid. He quickly went back into the house where Mary was washing his cups, plates and cutlery in anti-freeze.
Happily no further damage was done and everyone made a complete recovery.
But to this day, George, my mate always sniffs the inside of his cup before pouring himself a cup of tea and in the winter when he tops up his car radiator he always waits to see if any bubbles overflow.
All absolutely true, George.
R. S-S