Tuesday 23 March 2021

Why Alabamians Get into Dear Abby or Dear Ann Landers

 Most Alabamians, after getting through the front-page, and local murders....usually go straight to the Dear Abby or Dear Ann Landers section.  It could be a seven-page description of some problem with a guy and his ex-girlfriend....the in-law troubles...the loser cousin who has confessed to 300-odd sins since age sixteen....the torrid love affair with Thai lady down at the garden shop, or the break-up of a forty-year marriage.  

It's just that we look for juicy gossip that go beyond our house, or family.

If you were to wander into a barbershop around 8 AM....there's odds that the barber will bring up the latest story, and want to chat for three hours about some guy who got into a sizzling affair with the local Baptist minister's wife.  

Part of this issue is that we live pretty routine and boring lives.  Occasionally, the transmission fails....sometimes, the neighbor comes over to chat over their cousin in state-prison...now and then, the mail-man comes by and you chat with him over food poisoning affair at the local grill....off and on, the UPS guy stops and gives you a two-minute update on his ex-wife who ran off to Orlando to hook up with a Micky Mouse-actor.  

So the Dar Abby thing gives us hope that wild things are just around the corner....it could happen to us.  Any day now....some new gal might show up at the gas station and give us the double-wink then walk over to introduce herself to you....telling you her name is Alessandra or Chantel.  Or maybe some Italian guy moves two houses down, and mows his yard in skimpy shorts....attracting a dozen local gals to come over and offer up some ice tea.  

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