Here are a few of my experiences related to not paying close attention or not following directions.
The first one that comes to my mind was way back when I was maybe eighteen or so and living in a boarding house. I wasn’t familiar with the area and asked my landlady for directions to a church close by so I could attend Sunday Mass. She spelled out the directions for me to walk along by saying, go to the corner of our street, turn right, go down that street two blocks, then turn left and there’s the church. I arrived safe and sound but it was the return trip that got me for sure! I have to add I was wearing high heel shoes so they are not the best type of apparel for long or, should I say, longer walks. So naturally the return back would be to reverse the directions but for some reason I just didn’t do it and I ended up going back and forth up and down the streets until I finally made it back to my rooming house exhausted with sore feet for sure. My landlady and I did get a big laugh out of it!
The next memorable event as I think back took place many years later and goes like this. I was supposed to be following my hubby in our car while he was driving a U-Haul truck to move us back to Michigan from Tennessee. We had CB radios in the truck and in the car. There were no cell phones back in those days. I did pretty good for a couple of hundred miles or so and then it was time to stop at a truck stop and fuel up and have a bite to eat. I remember we hugged and kissed each other and then off we were supposed to go but I was arranging things on the seat of the car so I got a little late start but thought, so what I’ll catch up! Little did I know when I got back on the freeway that my hubby was quite a bit ahead of me but I could see the U-Haul emblem on a truck in front of me so I got behind it. We had previously agreed not to chit chat on the CB radios but just use them if it was really necessary keeping our focus just on driving not chatting. So off I went following the U-Haul truck I thought was ours, just driving away and listening to some gospel music and singing along. I’m not a good singer so I’ve been told, so singing alone works well for me. Down the road after awhile, my hubby called on the CB to say we’re going to stop at the next rest stop to take a break. So he pulled into the rest area and that’s when he saw me drive by and I remember he got on the radio and hollered “Where are you going? You missed the exit.” Well I got a little testy and called back saying, “I’m just following you!” My hubby said, “Get off at the next exit. That is not me you are following!” Who knows where I would have ended up? Thankfully all ended well. He caught up with me and kept me on the straight and narrow all the way back home to Imlay City.
Here’s one more classic of following directions…at least I thought I was! This took place when I copied a recipe for making homemade bread from my dear mother-in-law. I should have questioned the directions first especially since my mother-in-law always made things in huge amounts. Early one morning I followed the recipe that I had copied to make the homemade bread and because I had never ever made homemade bread before I was a little cautious and used a big stainless steel bowl. I added the flour, yeast and other ingredients then covered the dough with a clean dish towel and headed out the door to do some shopping and take care of business. I was gone most of the day and when I finally walked in the door the first thing I saw on the kitchen counter was my stainless steel bowl with what looked like a small band aid on top of a huge amount of dough. Of course it was the dish towel I used to cover the dough. I have to say I was literally surprised to see this massive amount of bread dough. So here’s the bottom line—the recipe was for five or six huge loaves of bread and I mean huge. I thought it was for maybe two small loves but actually my mother-in-law used large metal pans to bake her bread, not your standard loaf pans like I was accustomed to. So there I was with all this bread dough. All I could do was divide the dough into six, seven or eight loaf pans. There was no problem dividing the dough because marrying into this family there was always extras of everything so I had lots of loaf pans to bake this delicious bread in and was able to share the freshly baked bread with my friends.
The moral of the story is even if you are headed in the wrong direction you can get back on track. Also if you have too much of anything bless someone with whatever it is—just give it away!
Contact Helen at tct@pageone-inc.com.
