Free Gas!

My husband reminded me of this story when he said he had gotten a chuckle retelling it recently. It reminded me that I hadn't posted about it, and since it is my goal to bore my readers with every single detail of my existence, I promptly logged in to record it here.

A few months ago I took the kiddies for an overnight visit to the grandparents so MaddieLynn could see a Clinton Anderson Horsemanship seminar, which is extremely important to us since we do not now, nor have we ever, owned a horse.

It was a very well done seminar, by the way. I highly recommend all my readers who do not own horses to get yourselves to one of his seminars as soon as possible.

On our way to the event I had to stop and get gas in a tiny little town between here and there. It was such a tiny town, in fact, that I guess they hadn't heard about those really cool gas pumps that accept credit cards. They even have buttons you can press and a little screen with words scrolling across and everything.

This was the type of gas station that had the old fashioned pumps where the numbers roll by, clickety clack. (Anyone remember when alarm clocks had those numbers?) It was also the type that had old men wearing overalls and cowboy hats and playing dominos out front. They all said, "Howdy, ma'am" as I walked inside to pay for my gas.

When I got inside I told the clerk that I would like to pay for my gas and she asked, "The gas for that church van out there?" I told her yes and she asked if I would like to pay cash or put it on the church's account.

I was confused at first, and then it dawned on me that, while I was referring to our family car as a "church van", she was meaning that she thought it was literally a church van, and there must have been a church in town that had a credit account.

I giggled to myself as I considered (for only half a second) the ethical dilemma. Hmmmm. Should I say, "Why, YES! Yes I would like to put the gas on the church's account! Thank you!" and then drive away laughing maniacally?

Of course, I didn't, but it amused to no end all the same.