OK Solberg: 00:00

I wanna again welcome you to The 04:05 coffee break. Get your cup of coffee, glass iced tea, maybe a Coca Cola, and let's see what's happening.

OK Solberg: 00:08

Spring wheat $5.61 a bushel. 550lb steer calf. Remember this guys, $5 on the nose. $5 a pound. Butcher hog in Iowa 61¢ a pound, and a 100lb fat lamb in Billings $2.65 a pound. But guys, there's more, much more.

OK Solberg: 00:32

Okay. Okay. Bible verse right up front. Listen now. Listen. It's from Leviticus.

OK Solberg: 00:38

I don't share from that one very often either. Leviticus 14:9 As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword, take and use it as a barber's razor on your head and beard. Then take scales for weighing and divide the hair. Yes.

OK Solberg: 00:58

Take and use it as a barber's razor. Now I chose that verse because today I'm gonna be sharing a story about a boy whose father was a barber. Who out there remembers Jim Teeter? Oh, come on. Even this country boy from Harb remembers Jim Teeter.

OK Solberg: 01:20

He was a barber in the old Great Northern Hotel. Guys, do you remember that lobby? I can see it in my mind's eye today. Big old desk on the far side, wide stairs coming down into the lobby. And over on the west side, there was a barber shop, and Jim Teeter was the barber in that shop.

OK Solberg: 01:43

Oh, yeah. And to the south was a coffee shop where Eddie Taylor used to work. You remember, don't you? So anyway, I've been sharing true happenings I had in my childhood. And if you listened yesterday, I was in Mrs. Raymond's 4th grade.

OK Solberg: 02:00

Well, today, we're gonna stay right there in that time frame, 1966 '67 So here's the deal. I often faked being sick. Really? Yes.

OK Solberg: 02:13

I did. So I wouldn't have to go to school. I did. I didn't feel real well until the bus left the yard. Then miraculously, I was healed.

OK Solberg: 02:24

I really like to watch the Dick Van Dyke show. And for whatever reason, it was on during the daytime, and I don't have to look it up to know that because I remember watching it when I stayed home from school claiming to be sick. Well, anyway, this account I'm about to relay to you was a day I really was sick. Now you have to understand that I didn't like to talk to the teacher any more than I had to. I just like to mind my own business and maybe speak when spoken to if I had to.

OK Solberg: 03:00

But this one day in 4th grade, they're in Mrs. Raymond's class, I got a headache that wouldn't quit. I mean, guys, it was a barn burner of a headache. Because it was so bad, it motivated me. You know it was pretty bad for me to go to the teacher, to go to talk to Mrs. Raymond on my own. That requires a bad headache.

OK Solberg: 03:22

Not that Mrs. Raymond was mean or anything. Kids said that, but that wasn't true. She was very kind and a very good teacher. I was just so, what would you say, bashful, sheepish, or introverted that I couldn't hardly talk to any adult. But now this headache was bad.

OK Solberg: 03:42

Like I said, so I told Mrs. Raymond about it and she really believed me and she could see it in my eyes and she went to Mr. Knudson's office and told him. Well, Mr. Knudson cared also. So he called out to Harb, 658-3136. And my mother answered and Mr. Knutson asked my mom if it was okay to give him a couple aspirin. Now my mom said, yes.

OK Solberg: 04:12

But she added, don't let him take them on an empty stomach. Well, Mr. Knudson heard that and he and Mr. Raymond took me to the lunchroom and we got some of Ada Young's milk from the milk dispenser. Now guys, I like milk and I suck that glass down like candied apples. But Mr. Knudson thought it best if I have another glass. Yep.

OK Solberg: 04:38

Two glasses of milk for a 9 year old boy with a bad headache. Well, you know, I certainly was not gonna argue with Mr. Knutson, so I sucked down that 2nd glass. And I have to tell you this, guys. I've had this deal with my body. If I get something that feels wrong inside my gut, it just isn't going to accept it.

OK Solberg: 05:03

It's coming back up. Oh, I felt those glands in my neck doing that little dance, if you know what I mean, and I knew I was gonna throw up. I didn't even excuse myself. I dashed out of the cafeteria across the hall to the boys bathroom. I could go over there today because it's still the same and I bet it isn't over 10 or 11 yards to the boys bathroom door.

OK Solberg: 05:29

Well, I get the bathroom door opened and I'm moving quickly here, but it was too late. Just beyond that bathroom barrier, the moment happened and there was a gush like water flowing from Niagara Falls, but this was white and it gushes out onto the bathroom floor. I mean, I had no say so in the matter. What's done is done. I didn't wanna do it.

OK Solberg: 05:58

I walk around this white liquid on the floor and I had just pressed the button on the paper towel dispenser and the noon bell rings, lunchtime. I don't know if you remember, but some classes had it so the first child to wash their hands was the first child in the lunch line. Well, Jim Teeter's son Greg, Greg Teeter, he was an underclassman. He burst into the bathroom boy's bathroom like a police were after him, and he rounded the corner of that bathroom barrier and the heel of his riding boot hit that white liquid on the floor, and I have never seen a boy's feet slip out from under him as quickly as Greg slipped that day and cursplash his backside and including the rump of his pants and the entire back of his shirt helped soak up the mess I had just left on the floor. I remember as sick as I felt from the headache.

OK Solberg: 07:00

I remember standing at that paper towel dispenser laughing softly to myself. I never got to talk with Greg about that experience, but I'll guarantee, I'm pretty sure he still remembers.

OK Solberg: 07:15

So until next time, have a good weekend. As you go out there, remember now. Don't be bitter.