Ok, so one of my old coaches is at my reunion. Gilbert Green is a very nice guy, bespectacled, now about 80 years old. He coached basketball in junior high, 1962-1963. Nowadays, he visits each reunion just to catch up with everyone. Small town America. He doesn’t drink all that much.
Our conversation went like this:
Coach: Hey, Hoffman, good to see you.
Me: And you Coach, how have you been?
Coach: Been good.
Me: You are looking good. Are you retired yet? (this always makes older people feel good, you thinking they are younger than they are)
Coach: (laughing, but now thinking I am an observant guy, seeing how young he appears and all) Oh no. I have been retired for about twenty years.
Me: No kidding.
Coach: You from Minnesota now, right?
Me: Yes.
Coach: Ever been to Forest City, Iowa?
Me: (literally looked behind me, thinking he is asking someone else this question) Ummm, no.
Coach: (chest pumps up a bit–I’m serious, he is proud of this) Just got back from there, nine days!
Me: Really, why? (he has me now, I mean I HAVE been to small Iowa towns and nine days seems like a long time
would make me slit my wrists)Coach: Oh, that is where the Winnebago factory is. Each year we go there for their rally. There are thousands of people there. It is a lot of fun.
Me: I have actually heard of those rallies. A lot of wife swapping goes on at those events, I hear. Is that right?
Coach: (Ever seen the look on someone’s face right when they have been shot? He had THAT look. Eyes nearly bugged out and started to roll back into his head–Then he got that I was kidding.) Oh my now, wife swapping…!!Oh My! Wife swapping. Oh My! WIFE SWAPPING!! Oh, oh, oh my. WIFE SWAPPING!!! (he’ s laughing hard now.)
End.
I just hope he went back and told his wife that someone thought they were into wife swapping at the big [tag]Winnebago Rally[/tag] in [tag]Forest City, Iowa[/tag]. It would have made her day, too. The incongruity of it all.
I mean…think about it—check out their smiles here. After nine days in a camper, would you be smiling? BTW, what is that guy’s hat hanging on?
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[...] then this last summer, at my high school reunion, I made a wife swapping joke with an old teacher. Even today, if someone searches for ”wife swapping stories”—they get my blog. [...]