Have you ever met somebody who was not happy to meet you?

May 4, 2023

Have you ever met somebody who was not happy to meet you?

I grew up in a parsonage in Rochester NY. When it snowed on a Saturday, my brother and I were scrambled to help clear the church sidewalks. Other local men helped, but Steve and I were expected to remain on duty until the job was done.

We knew that double desserts at dinner would likely be our reward, but still this task was daunting. The sidewalks were tough enough, and we knew we’d never get the parking lot done, even if we stayed out there all night. But we never had to, because eventually Farmer Jennyjohn would arrive on his tractor to plow out the lot.

We were always thrilled to see him, although he acknowledged our waves and cheers only with Falstaffian grunts. This is a true man of God, we thought, who loves the church as we do, to come out in the blizzard every time to bail us out. We knew he did not actually attend the church, but that did not dim our admiration of him.

Recently my mother happened to mention the contract the church had with Farmer Jennyjohn for his plowing service. Had I thought much about this as an adult, I might have intuited the existence of such a reasonable arrangement. But I hadn’t, and now Farmer Jennyjohn takes his place in my mind as just another workingman making a buck.

Come to think of it, for a church-loving man, he was awfully profane when we trespassed on his property to play army.

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About THE BLOG

Thanks for making your way to the The Days of Wine and Roses, and Vasectomies, the personal blog of Elden Carnahan. My dad has been composing these stories as long as I can remember, either on paper or aloud around the dinner table. “You should put all your vignettes together into a book so we can sell it,” my mother would suggest from time to time.

For Christmas 2021, my sister gave Dad a Storyworth account–an online writing platform that sends you a weekly writing prompt in the form of a question. After a year or so of questions, the responses are all assembled into a hardback book. Dad took on the challenge with gusto, answering scores of questions, which often lent themselves to retellings of some of his favorite vignettes.

We’re using this blog to deliver the stories to a broader audience. Some of the posts are direct answers to Storyworth’s questions; others are stories that he wrote for other purposes. I’ll try to provide context and explanation where appropriate. Many of the images accompanying these stories were produced using DALL-E artificial intelligence, using prompts related to the stories.

Please feel free to engage with us by leaving comments, and enjoy!

-April (daughter of Elden)

Days of Wine and Roses, and Vasectomies