When people run out of things to say….

signs go empty…

crossword puzzles go unfinished….

or  some people even run for political office….

others fill up blogs and internet bandwidth with blah, blah, blah….

When meters can’t agree on anything……

……and unfortunately…… these two feel stuck with one another.

Well, we can’t know everything, about ALL things.   Apparently, there is more to yesterday’s account than I was privy to….  Yesssirrrreeeeee.  This came from loyal 372 viewer, Lea Ann Golden.  I’ll tell you, she is one smart cookie, and had her thumb on the pulse of this story.  Lea Ann writes:

“The third brother of Dewey and Floyd Silver, who went by the name of Lloyd, was in the army, in fact he was a general. After serving his tour of duty, he started a small business, a general store, and, noting the failure of his brothers’ five and dime, decided to go big. There would be no small ticket items for sale in his business. Thus was born Dollar General Silver, later shortened to General Silver, after much debate. If only he had listened to his wife, Agnes, and shortened it to Dollar General………”

Thanks Lea Ann.  I welcome this interactivity here.

1. It is way more funner  Way funner!!! (Don’t flame me people… I know ‘way more’ is not a word!
2. We find out details that I never knew existed…..I mean, who would have guessed all that about old Lloyd… and Agnes…. that Agnes…. smart as a whip, I’ll tell you.  Smart as a whip.

Who thought of this one, I wonder?  I’m guessing it wasn’t a woman, or a gay man.  Here is a very old tiled entrance to a store.  Heaven only knows how old it is… but somebody really put some thought in to the layout and design of those tiles.  But the phrase has a bit to be desired, doesn’t it?

Silver’s 5 to 10 cent and 1 dollar stores.  I mean, what the heck?  Loopy.

The Old Silver Brothers, Dewey and Floyd, were sitting around drinking one night, and…. and…. Dewey says, “Let’s name our stores  Silver’s 5-10¢ & $1.00 Stores”  Floyd is elated.  Out of his gourd……”Well hell yes Dewey! I’ll drink to that!  Perfectly Superb!”  And so it began….

You could spend a nickel there.  Or a dime.  Or a dollar even.  But nothing else.  Floyd and Dewey thought this was a splendid idea. Yes indeedy.  They went out of business eleven months later.  As it turned out, people wanted to spend 25 or 30 cents at a time.  So they went elsewhere to spend their silver.

It is all over the news tonight.  The Case of the Missing Five.

2, 3, and….4, and, …….6.

Kind of like in the Godfather.  “Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Wednesday.”

P.S. Blogs are Transmittable, like diseases.  More to come on this, sometime soon……..

Alas, as I mentioned, we made our big trek up north for the holidays.  It is always a LOOOONNNNNGGGG day with 2 humans, 2 dogs, and 2 cats in 1 car.  But, we sing, and eat, and drive and drive, and drive, and laugh, and get grumpy, and drive, and eat, and sing, and drive, and drive, until we make our way.

I always hate to leave Charleston.  There are statues of magical little nymphs down there.  Pretty much everywhere.  Who could want any more?  (See photo below)

But yesterday, we left the little gem of Charleston.  There were a couple of times during the drive that I attmpted to be puny about something here or there.  And just about the time that I’d try to wear my Curmudgeon Hat, someone would be surprisingly nice and show their human beauty-ness.  The cashier at Big Lumpy’s Quick Stop in Somewhere, South Carolina, who, at 5:50 a.m. turned on the gas pumps early for us, so that we could fill up and continue on our way.

Or how about the Gertie the Counter Lady at Wendy’s in in dismal and dreary West Virginia?  Books are not to be judged by their covers.  I didn’t so much feel like conversing at Big Daves…. but Gert did…. and she was the nicest lady in the world.  You see, here’s a little known fact about me:  I always get triple-pickles on my single, cheese with everything’s at Wendy’s.  So I gave my order to Gertie, and she was so darn cute.  She fessed up that she likes to drink pickle juice (and sometimes even olive juice) right out of the jars at home. Loves it.  Can’t get enough of the stuff.   Her husband caught her red-handed, so now she said she’s eating the pickles too, so that he can’t tell when she’s been nipping the juice.  She then proceeded to bring out 2 extra containers of pickles to our table, so that we’d be sure to have enough.  Thanks Gertie the nicest pickle-juice-drinking lady I’ve ever met.

Oh what a DAY this was….WHAT A DAY!

Lots of things happened today.  Funny things, and not-so-funny things.  I will write about them in great length over the next couple of installments, however for tonight…. a tired, tired, night, here is a bit of a summation.

1. Had to get up just a little minute after my bedtime.

2. Found out about olfactory sensors in my nasal system, that I never knew were there.

3. Met the nicest fast-food cashier EVER!  I like to call her “Pickels”

4. And SO MUCH more.  I even got hysterical at one point.  Totally off-the-charts unhinged.

Have wings, will fly.  Have feet, will travel.

Whether you believe in “the other worldly” or not, it is fun to read about and explore.  Do a Google Search for “haunted sites in charleston”…  (you’ll see a few commercial links for tours)…. but there are tons of lists on the web that talk about this 2nd most haunted city in America (Savannah, GA is number one).

The place pictured above is off the beaten path in downtown Charleston.  It is near Beufain and Wentworth Streets, just west of King Street.  I don’t know the whole story behind this place, but they say it is haunted by a not-so-friendly ghost.  When I was there shooting the place, I got the Creepers in a very big way.  Heebie Jeebies.  Willies.  Jim-Jams.  Just all scoogee from head to toe.  Scooooogeeeee.  (Pronounced Skoo – G)

Scared.

Tonight, we went to see the Vienna Boys Choir perform.  They were so darn cute, and SO darn talented.  They sang like this:

“Aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh.”  (Really high pitched, like higher than the Church Lady sings…..)

I was not permitted to take any photographs beyond this door:

So, I borrowed this from their website, so you could sorta’ see what they look like:  http://www.wsk.at :

There is little known about the historical origins of the doorman.  Some scholars purport that the earliest doormen date back to the “cave man” area.  Said Professor Johnathan Timmothy Higgenbotthom, of Harvard University, “Where there were doors, there were doormen,” noting the correlation of the first openings in cave dwellings.

Higgenbotthom’s scholarly adversary, (and coincedentally, his  fierce rival at the YMCA men’s Thursday night bowling league)  Ferriday R. Mosely, argues against this theory.  Mosely, a doctor of historical preservation and rejuvenation, recently stated in an interview with GQ Magazine:  “Absurd.  Totally absurd.  Ol’ John Timmy has gone off the deep end.  There is absolutely no evidence to support his verbal dribblings, which are a big, fatty, load of tripe.”  Higgenbotthom and Mosely were said to have exchanged blows on the Harvard campus, the day after this interview hit the news stands.

However, of recent interest and notability:  A pair of white gloves and a little tin whistle were found at an archaeological dig just outside of the Hohler Stein Caves, located in southern Germany.  They date to 11,000 B.C.  Perhaps John T. is onto something……

This is Billy the Doorman.  He works at The Planters Inn on Market Street.  His last name is Neudorf.  Billy Neudorf the Doorman, from the Planters Inn, I’ll tell you.  (German descent…. hmmmmm…..  eats his steaks rare… hmmmm……  likes to watch Barney the Purple Dinosaur on TV…. hmmmmm….