Who Are You and What Have You Done With My Father

 

Wanted:  A washer and dryer, two trumpets and a puppy.

Copyright 2020 - Brenda Rees

Do you belong to a neighborhood blog or Facebook or email group or list serve?  You know what I mean, the modern version of a town crier or calling tree. This is how you get the word out about play dates, choir practice, political meetings, book groups, etc.

It is also the vehicle for useful information, and for people looking for specific free or cheap items.  And for those with surplus items that do not want to go to the trouble of having a garage sale.

I have even received information on temporary jobs,

There are also those local non-emergent APB’s for alerts or missing people items.  For instance, a more interesting recent post was for a missing trashcan that disappeared during a windstorm.

On a larger scale, small town radio stations sometimes have a want ad segment during the day to buy or sell items.  While driving on rural I-70, I heard an ad to sell a camper shell for a 72 Ford pickup, and for fence posts – to buy and to sell, for firewood, and generators, etc.

One small eastern Utah town has an anniversary broadcast that everyone looks forward to and repeats to outsiders.  It seems that the owner purchased the station years ago, wanting to move from the east to the west and to own a radio station.  This small-town radio station came up for sale and he purchased it and moved to the West.  His experience with small town western life was non-existent up to this point, but he embraced the slower pace of life and kept the Want Ads segment on the radio.  One particular day, he was reading some of the for-sale items and said (I’m paraphrasing, and I can’t specifically recall the numbers or names):

“Mr. Jones has 33 ewes for sale.  If you want an ewe, here’s his number: ###-####.”

That’s all fine, but he didn’t pronounce the word for a female sheep as a long “U” vowel sound. He pronounced it EE-WEE. He followed up by saying. “I have no idea what an EE-WEE is, but it seems he has a lot of them for sale.

Back to the neighborhood wall board:

The most unusual post I ever received was:

Wanted:  A washer and dryer, two trumpets and a puppy.

Now that is an awfully specific list.  I had none of these to offer, but knowing the poster, I was beyond curious. I followed-up.  They got all but one trumpet.