A liberal Dem gardener friend of mine and I decided to organize a plant swap for spring. We are doing this as a means of "gardener survival" in the middle of winter. I invited a third gardener from our gardening cyberforum to work with us in the planning. We set a meeting for Sunday.
On the way to the meeting my liberal friend, whose name is Cindy, remarked that one of her favorite charming towns is "(name of town)." She told me all the reasons she liked this town--the quaint houses and shops, the town green, the landscaping,the cottage gardens, etc. I said, "It's interesting that this is your favorite town--because that is where Helen lives." Helen is the third gardener with whom we were meeting.
Cindy then said, "Well, I sure hope you're not getting me into a planning committee with some republican. Because that town is practically solid republican!" I said, "I sure hope she's not a repuke!"
We arrived at the meeting place and there was Helen. We chatted for awhile about various things. Suddenly Helen got a pained look on her face and she tried to ask us something but she was having trouble getting the words out. It had something to do with bush, which kind of surprised me because most of the preceding conversation had been about the gardening forum we all frequent. Finally I said, "Spit it out Helen. What is it?" She said, "Well, you aren't bush people are you? Because if you are...if you are, I can't work with you."
I just about fell off my chair laughing. I looked at my friend Cindy, whose eyes were popping out of her head. Here was someone from the heart of a bush county--in fact, the wealthiest county in the whole United States--telling us she couldn't work with us if we were "bush people."
Well, this precipitated a heated exchange about who hated him most and I'd like to think I won but I'm sure both Helen and Cindy thought they won, too.
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Cher