A Visit From the Priest – IV

Johnny Jenkins was helping install new wood siding on the Guild Hall during a church workday one Saturday. Johnny reached into his nail pouch, pulled out a nail, and as he held it against the siding with one hand, preparing to hit it with the hammer in the other hand, he noticed that he had the head of the nail up against the siding and the pointed end toward himself.

“Oh look,” he said, “the point of the nail is facing south when the siding is toward the north. I’ve got the wrong kind of nail for this side of the Guild Hall.”

With that he walked to the north side of the Guild Hall, all the while holding the nail so that the pointed end continued to face south, and when he got to the other side of the building he said, “Now that’s better. Now the pointed end is up against the siding and the head of the nail can be properly hit.” Such was the way Johnny Jenkins was, and therefore it should come as no surprise to you that one day Johnny Jenkins drove two cars across Washington Mountain Road.

This came about when Johnny was sitting at the lunch counter at the Becket General Store reading the weekly advertiser. His eyes fell upon an old Nash Rambler for sale over in south Pittsfield. As a matter of fact, the person who had it for sale lived at the base of Washington Mountain. At the time Johnny’s friend Benny Hastings was also in The General, and so Johnny said, “Benny, how about going with me to Pittsfield to look at this Nash Rambler? If I buy it I’ll need someone to help me get it home.”

Well, Benny said he was too busy and couldn’t spare the time. Now it so happened that there were a couple of other men in the store who Johnny also asked to go with him to Pittsfield, but they turned him down too. So off Johnny went to Pittsfield by himself to inspect the Rambler.

Since the Rambler was to Johnny’s liking he bought it right then and there. And then, I might ask you, what did Johnny do? Now you and I would have gone back to Becket and made arrangements for someone to go back to Pittsfield with us to retrieve the vehicle, but not Johnny. After all, he had asked three friends to give him a hand and they had all turned him down.

So Johnny got in his car and drove it a quarter mile or so, got out and walked back to his Rambler and drove it about a quarter mile beyond his car; parked and walked back to his car and then drove it a quarter mile or so beyond the Rambler; parked it and walked back to the Rambler and drove it a quarter mile or so beyond his car…and you get the idea. A quarter mile here, a half mile there, and so forth and so on, up Washington Mountain Road and across Washington Mountain, and then down Washington Mountain Road into Becket, somewhere around 4:30 AM. He parked both cars in the parking lot of Becket General and slept the rest of the night in the Rambler. Since his wife was out of town visiting relatives no one missed the old boy that night, expect maybe his hound dog.

Well, I think we need to get back to Jean Claude in the hospital up in Pittsfield, but as you’ve probably noticed I’ve run out of time today…