Last night at dinner, Evie mentioned that she had bought some hind quarters of chicken and wanted to cook them in the oven for a couple of hours. We have done this before and then deboned and bagged the chicken to use in salads and casseroles, etc.
So after dinner, Evie put the chicken in the oven and mentioned that I should take it out in about 2 hours. Well, the 2 hours came and Evie was at her weekly prayer group with her "sisterhood". I turned off the oven and planned to return and debone the meat once it had cooled.
This morning, Evie was getting ready to leave for work and asked me where I had put the chicken after it had cooked. I looked at her like a deer in headlights and responded with, "Shoot, the chicken is still in the oven from last night!" I then did the typical male thing and asked her if she thought the chicken would still be OK? Evie responded with, "Mark,
NO! THROW IT AWAY!!!"
So after dinner, Evie put the chicken in the oven and mentioned that I should take it out in about 2 hours. Well, the 2 hours came and Evie was at her weekly prayer group with her "sisterhood". I turned off the oven and planned to return and debone the meat once it had cooled.
This morning, Evie was getting ready to leave for work and asked me where I had put the chicken after it had cooked. I looked at her like a deer in headlights and responded with, "Shoot, the chicken is still in the oven from last night!" I then did the typical male thing and asked her if she thought the chicken would still be OK? Evie responded with, "Mark,
NO! THROW IT AWAY!!!"So after she left for work, I pulled it out of the oven and I double bagged the bad chicken and wondered what I should do it it. Naturally our garbage man had picked up our weekly garbage just yesterday so I knew we didn't want the bad chicken smelling up the garage and garbage can the next week! I placed it on the floor of the garage until I figured out where to put it!
It made me think about in 1986 when we lived in Aberdeen, SD. Evie had
bought a large turkey on sale and we hadn't had a reason to cook it. So it sat in a refrigerator freezer in the base-ment. What we forgot was sometime earlier we had unplugged that refrigerator because we really didn't need to use it. What we didn't realize was the turkey in the freezer unit had been left in the freezer! Well, one day Evie was in the basement and noticed a "fowl smell". She took the old bird which of course by now was thawed out and had placed it in the garbage can between our garage and the next door neighbors.
When I drove up to the garage after work that night I smelled this terrible odor and asked Evie about it. She commented that she had put it in the garbage. I responded with, "Honey, we have company coming tomorrow and our garbage doesn't get picked up until sometime next week!"
We then discussed our options. We could take it to my office which was downtown (but the odor would have shut down the free parking lot behind the office and it would have become a public nuisance!)
So our final decision was to drive the bird in the bag to a city park and to drop it off. After all, we are tax payers and it's our garbage in the park as much as anyone else's! So we drove in our old, beat up white Ambassador car with Carrie in the backseat and Evie and me in the front to Melgaard Park on the south side of town. We threw the bag in a garbage container kind of off by itself or so we thought.
The next day, our company had come and wanted to go to Arts In the Park. We then realized that thousands of people would be spending that Saturday in Arts at the Park at MELGAARD PARK!!!!!! OUCH! 20,000 people attend that one day event each year!!! How were we going to apologize to 20,000 people we wondered! So we headed over to Melgaard Park for the Arts Gala with our heads hanging low swearing that we would NEVER tell a human soul about where we had dumped the bird the night before.
We got to Melgaard Park and we immediately looked over at the parking area where we had dropped off the bird. Normally this parking lot was where the food vendors had located in the past. But unfortunately, because of the smell of our bird, they had roped off the entire parking lot and had moved the vendors to another area which was very inconvenient! WE FELT TERRIBLE!!!!!
Well, Sunday came and we went to church. Thank God it wasn't communion Sunday or I don't think I would have felt worthy taking communion!!!! Church was fine, I asked God for forgiveness for messing up the Arts in the Park and dropping off the bird. At the end of the service, one of the church members walked up to us and our company and said, "Hey Pattersons, what were you guys doing in Melgaard Park the other night in your white car?" Evie and I looked at one another and pondered which one of us would respond to that question. I responded with, "Oh just dropping something off at the park!" I didn't lie but didn't tell him the whole truth thinking if I told someone I might find myself serving time on the hill at the prison in Sioux Falls!
Over lunch, Evie who was feeling guilty for our "Fowl Act", shared with our company what we had done with our bird in the bag at Melgaard Park! They laughed and laughed and said, "You guys, we can't believe you did that!!!! That is hilarious! No wonder you skirted the question earlier today Mark when asked why you were in Melgaard Park!"
Well those friends became even greater friends as we four held this secret about our dumping the bird in the park story. They eventually married and then several years ago, Larry and Dana Lang (our friends) moved to Sioux Falls and joined our church. I don't even know if the Langs remember that story since it has been 20 years ago.
So back to the bird story of today. What did I do with it? Not really sure I should share it but if I don't, it might haunt me the rest of my life! In keeping with tradition, I drove to a city park and placed if in a garbage can on the fringe of the park. As I got back into my car the smell was terrible and reminded me of our initial experience in Aberdeen. I chose not to look back and research if the smell existed before I dropped off the bird or if it had just taken place since my arrival!
As I drove away I started laughing and decided from now on, we will buy deboned chicken at the grocery store and not the whole bird!!!!!!!
AND WE ALL KNOW THAT WITH THREE FOULS (FOWLS!) AND I AM OUT OF THE GAME!!!!
Markus
It made me think about in 1986 when we lived in Aberdeen, SD. Evie had
bought a large turkey on sale and we hadn't had a reason to cook it. So it sat in a refrigerator freezer in the base-ment. What we forgot was sometime earlier we had unplugged that refrigerator because we really didn't need to use it. What we didn't realize was the turkey in the freezer unit had been left in the freezer! Well, one day Evie was in the basement and noticed a "fowl smell". She took the old bird which of course by now was thawed out and had placed it in the garbage can between our garage and the next door neighbors.When I drove up to the garage after work that night I smelled this terrible odor and asked Evie about it. She commented that she had put it in the garbage. I responded with, "Honey, we have company coming tomorrow and our garbage doesn't get picked up until sometime next week!"
We then discussed our options. We could take it to my office which was downtown (but the odor would have shut down the free parking lot behind the office and it would have become a public nuisance!)
So our final decision was to drive the bird in the bag to a city park and to drop it off. After all, we are tax payers and it's our garbage in the park as much as anyone else's! So we drove in our old, beat up white Ambassador car with Carrie in the backseat and Evie and me in the front to Melgaard Park on the south side of town. We threw the bag in a garbage container kind of off by itself or so we thought.
The next day, our company had come and wanted to go to Arts In the Park. We then realized that thousands of people would be spending that Saturday in Arts at the Park at MELGAARD PARK!!!!!! OUCH! 20,000 people attend that one day event each year!!! How were we going to apologize to 20,000 people we wondered! So we headed over to Melgaard Park for the Arts Gala with our heads hanging low swearing that we would NEVER tell a human soul about where we had dumped the bird the night before.
We got to Melgaard Park and we immediately looked over at the parking area where we had dropped off the bird. Normally this parking lot was where the food vendors had located in the past. But unfortunately, because of the smell of our bird, they had roped off the entire parking lot and had moved the vendors to another area which was very inconvenient! WE FELT TERRIBLE!!!!!
Well, Sunday came and we went to church. Thank God it wasn't communion Sunday or I don't think I would have felt worthy taking communion!!!! Church was fine, I asked God for forgiveness for messing up the Arts in the Park and dropping off the bird. At the end of the service, one of the church members walked up to us and our company and said, "Hey Pattersons, what were you guys doing in Melgaard Park the other night in your white car?" Evie and I looked at one another and pondered which one of us would respond to that question. I responded with, "Oh just dropping something off at the park!" I didn't lie but didn't tell him the whole truth thinking if I told someone I might find myself serving time on the hill at the prison in Sioux Falls!
Over lunch, Evie who was feeling guilty for our "Fowl Act", shared with our company what we had done with our bird in the bag at Melgaard Park! They laughed and laughed and said, "You guys, we can't believe you did that!!!! That is hilarious! No wonder you skirted the question earlier today Mark when asked why you were in Melgaard Park!"
Well those friends became even greater friends as we four held this secret about our dumping the bird in the park story. They eventually married and then several years ago, Larry and Dana Lang (our friends) moved to Sioux Falls and joined our church. I don't even know if the Langs remember that story since it has been 20 years ago.
So back to the bird story of today. What did I do with it? Not really sure I should share it but if I don't, it might haunt me the rest of my life! In keeping with tradition, I drove to a city park and placed if in a garbage can on the fringe of the park. As I got back into my car the smell was terrible and reminded me of our initial experience in Aberdeen. I chose not to look back and research if the smell existed before I dropped off the bird or if it had just taken place since my arrival!
As I drove away I started laughing and decided from now on, we will buy deboned chicken at the grocery store and not the whole bird!!!!!!!
AND WE ALL KNOW THAT WITH THREE FOULS (FOWLS!) AND I AM OUT OF THE GAME!!!!
Markus
No comments:
Post a Comment