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My mother had 11 brothers and sisters that survived past infancy. There were several more that sadly did not.One of her brothers, my Uncle Louis told me a story once about when he was just a little boy. Now I won't tell it the way he would have because as people have said to him "do we have to pack a lunch for this story".
The way I remember it was that back in his youth, around 1928 maybe, he was walking down the street in their home town in Manitoba. It was near Winnipeg, perhaps Transcona.
Uncle Louis looked down at the ground and found a nickel. That was more money than he could ever hope to have.
Oh my goodness what would he do with this fortune. He thought about it and thought about it. After all he has so many brothers and sisters. He went to the store and spent his nickel. He bought a can of sardines. Not candy. No. Simply a can of oily sardines. And do you know what he did with his treasure? Wrong. He went and hid in the attic and ate the whole can himself. You know what. I can't blame him. They lived in such poverty and this was his one selfish act to have the prize all to himself. To not have to share every waking and sleeping moment with the others.
Now Uncle Lou could have told this story much better than I could but then we would have had to pack a lunch and all the sardines were gone.
cute story.
ReplyDeletethanks for sharing.
Loved it.
ReplyDeleteGreat story. We think we've got it hard now, we really haven't got a clue.
ReplyDeleteAli
Ali: I agree we don't have a clue how hard it can be. This is just one story of many.
ReplyDeleteOne mention of sardines and I am reminded of the play "Noises Off". If you have not seen it you should. It is hilarious. My sides hurt from laughing the first time I saw it.
ReplyDeleteI love this touching story. I think that sardines were staples back then. They made a mess of the paper though.
ReplyDeleteXOLucy
Thank you for sharing this story. I am hoping to get mom on her blog today and I will show her this story. This is how it can be done - just quick snippets that can be saved and not lost.
ReplyDeleteLori you are a treasure!!
Such a cute story. Times were so tough then and I'm sure he didn't get to be selfish very often. Sounds like he really enjoyed the sardines, he still remembers it. Hugs, Marty
ReplyDelete