Mum & A Friend Got Easter Wrong
BUT EACH CREATED NEVER-TO-BE-FORGOTTEN STORIES
I’ve got two quite funny stories to tell you about Easter. Both came about due to errors in communication. The first concerns a friend of mine (I’ll call him John to protect him from embarrassment). The second is a story about an Easter Bunny that isn’t a bunny. This one comes from a letter-mix-up between me and my mum some years ago.
Both stories are fun … I hope you enjoy them. John’s story is a bit make-believe in that it isn’t strictly true, though it is accurate in its message. My mum’s story is absolutely true, and it contains a surprise Easter element that may lead to a new Easter Tradition. Bet you can’t wait to read it! Here are the two stories … enjoy!
John’s Story:
Last year, my wife & I received an invitation from an old couple who live up the road from us, asking us to join them for an afternoon tea at their house on the Sunday before Easter.
Let’s call our friends Mabel & John (not their real names), in order to avoid embarrassment … especially for ‘John’.
We didn’t associate our afternoon visit with Easter … that was a week away, but during our little chats, Easter became a real focus. And here’s why:
We were coming to the end of a lovely tea-and-scones-type meal when Mabel said: “Wait til you hear what John did last week”
Before she could elaborate, John got up from the table and said that he was going out to the verandah for a smoke. And being a friend of John’s, and another fella (though a non-smoker), I got up to keep him company on the verandah (as fellas do!).
Mabel let John go, but said to me: “No, don’t YOU go … you must hear this”. Such a command from a woman cannot be ignored, so I sat down!
Mabel then told us what happened when, on the previous day (a Saturday afternoon), she had asked John to go and buy a few pre-Easter purchases from the nearby local supermarket whilst she did some special Easter baking.
Apparently, Mabel & John were to visit their daughter for Easter Day (the following Sunday) and Mabel had seen (in the supermarket catalogue), that they had, on special, a giant Easter Egg (in a box the size of a small packing case) and she thought that it would make a great Easter present to take to their little granddaughter … and it was only 7 dollars! She had also noticed a cheap Bag of Cat Litter that was on special too. Mabel loves her cat.
She said that John was reluctant to go out that Saturday afternoon because he wanted to watch a live football match involving his favorite team, so she told him that she had prepared a list in a clear and easy-read format that would take him no-time-at-all to purchase, and that he’d be back in no time.
She had even numbered the items on her list. She showed us the list. You can see below what it looked like. Notice that she forgot to put full-stops after each item’s number. That was the big mistake:
1 2Kg bag of self-raising flour
2 2Kg bag of sugar
3 2Ltr bottle of milk
4 Dozen eggs
5 8Kg bag of rice
6 10 Kg bag of Cat Litter
7 Toilet rolls (36 pack)
8 Boxed Giant Easter Egg
So John set off for a quick buy & spend.
Mabel told us that John had not returned home some hour & a half later. She was bothered that he was going to miss the match, and when he did eventually arrive back, it was already half-time. (The TV was on & ready).
After two hours, the side door to the garage opened and in came John with a bag of items. He went back to the garage for another bag whilst Mabel unpacked the first one. It contained a bag of self-raising flour; two bags of sugar; and three two-liter bottles of milk.
The penny dropped! Mabel could see what had happened. Can you? Yes, of course, John had read the list numbers as quantities required. Mabel had only wanted one of each item … oh dear, what would he bring in next?
She was right of course, and John made three more trips to the garage, bringing in 48 eggs; 40 kilograms of rice in 5 eight-kilogram bags; six 10 kg bags of cat litter and 252 toilet rolls!
When he went out to the garage for the next item, Mabel knew… just knew what he would bring in next, and when he did … (8 packing-case-sized Easter Egg boxes), she could hold in her incredulity no more. She said to John:
“Didn’t you get it … that the numbers were list numbers, not item numbers?”
“Yes, said John, but by the time I ‘twigged’, I was off-loading the Easter Eggs onto the supermarket’s rolling platform for the cashier who was looking at me strangely, and I just had to keep a straight face! … And the other shop-attendants who had been bringing me trolley after trolley to load my purchases had been very helpful too, so I thanked them on the way out as they assisted me in taking the trolleys to the car in the car-park”.
Mum’s Story:
Around Easter 2021, I published my mum’s Easter story. It is centered on a quaint Australian mammal called a Bilby.
In case you haven’t read it, here is that story again. It is titled: How My Mother added Extra Sweetness to an Easter Tradition.
It is a true story that could possible start a new Easter Tradition. To read it you can click the underlined title above or the box-link below.
Happy Easter Reading … Fred
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“Fred Has Fun With 2 EASTER Errors” by Fred: writer on Medium ***** © Fred Ogden 2023 ***** Thank you for reading this story … Hope you enjoyed the read.
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