With Mother’s Day approaching, Paula Trapani Bourg, of Ethel, finds this a good time to tell of her mom:
“Although I had the best mother in the world, there were times when I wanted to wring her neck.
“Once when I took the bus from Baton Rouge to visit her in New Orleans, I didn’t let her know I was coming.
“Finding myself short of cash, I went directly from the bus station to a downtown New Orleans bank to have my paycheck cashed.
“When the bank asked for identification, I said I worked in Baton Rouge and was making a surprise visit to my mother.
“Taken by surprise when the bank officer asked for my mother’s name and phone number, I didn’t think to tell him that she was unaccustomed to formality, and that everybody called her ‘Miss Nellie.’
“As I found out later, when he called and asked for Mrs. Trapani, she replied, ‘You have the wrong number, this is the police station.’
“When he told her he was vice president of Hibernia Bank and that a young woman who claimed to be her daughter was trying to cash a government check, she denied any kinship with me and told him he’d better arrest the imposter.
“He somehow made her realize he was serious, and she apologized, explaining that she ran a grocery store in the Irish Channel, and that salesmen were always teasing her.
“When he finally hung up, he was laughing out loud.
“But when I left the bank with the cash in my purse, I wasn’t even smiling. …”
Sarah Stravinska, of Chestnut, says, “Daughter Kathryn was a penny pincher. She was the only one of us, sometimes including the adults, who always had money in her bank.
“One time we went to the lunch counter at a drug store where Kathryn, age 10, asked the price of an English muffin.
“When told, she exclaimed, ‘For that price I can buy a whole pack of muffins!’ and marched out the door and over to the grocery next door.
“The waitress raised her eyebrows, and I shrugged.
“Kathryn came back with her muffins, showed the receipt and her change to the waitress, and asked, ‘If I give you the change for a tip, will you toast one of my muffins?’
“The waitress was so amused she took the change and toasted the muffin.”
Ray Schell, of Prairieville, tells of being stopped by a police officer one evening about 10 years ago while driving through west Texas:
“I told him I was amazed that he stopped me for doing 78 mph, only three miles over the speed limit.
“He informed me that the Texas nighttime speed limit was 65 mph.
“When I told him there were no signs informing us of that, he said, ‘But they have published it in all the papers.’ ”
After several readers mentioned people who thought the CATS tax vote involved actual cats, I heard from Dan Burkhalter, the Carencro Curmudgeon.
He asked if anyone had discussed the hair color of those folks.
Wonder what he meant by that?
Megan Noel says that during May the Zachary Area Reading Council, made up of teachers and administrators in the Zachary School District, holds events to support literacy “and foster a love of reading.”
“Gently used adult and children’s fiction books” are sought for a used book sale May 26 in the Zachary Elementary School auditorium.
Megan says, “We will be accepting donations May 12 at the Zachary Community Market, and May 14-18 from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Zachary Elementary.”
A “Girls on the Run” 5K run at 9 a.m. Saturday at Pennington Biomedical Research Center raises funds for scholarships for Girls on the Run, which promotes healthy habits for girls in grades 3-8.
Go to http://www.girlson
therunbr.org, or email Walker Higgins at walker@girlson
therunbr.org.
From Joe Guilbeau, of Plaquemine: “No matter how many cable channels you have, everything good is going to be on a channel you don’t have.”
Keith Horcasitas adds to our stories on phone scams:
“After Hurricane Katrina I was doing telephone case management, and we were trained by a program leader, J.B., on how to handle all phone situations.
“We were then making and receiving all kinds of ‘NOLA Bound’ calls from folks inquiring about their loved ones, neighborhoods in New Orleans, etc.
“On the lighter side, J.B. told about some crank calls he and his staff had received.
“Caller IDs had just begun coming out, and after one of his staff received a call
from an obviously young
teenager, he was able to call back and inform the mother
of the caller what had happened.”
Keith says at that point the staff member heard the phone being dropped — and some serious punishment ensued.
Contact Smiley at Smiley@theadvocate.com, by fax at (225) 388-0351 or mail at P.O. Box 588, Baton Rouge, LA 70821.
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