Hard To Get It Done Right
This fellow ate in the same restaurant every day, and he always complained about how the food was prepared. He had all sorts of strange requests in regard to his food, and nothing ever pleased him. One morning he ordered two eggs, one sunny-side up and the other scrambled. The long-suffering waitress gave the order to the cook, and eventually brought the man’s breakfast. He stared at the eggs for a long time and said, “He’s scrambled the wrong one.”
—Curing The Cross-Eyed Mule written by Loyal Jones and Billy Edd Wheeler
Now that man was the very definition of the word contrary.
I’d like to say I’ve never been contrary, but I’d be lying if I ever did say it. I try to keep on the sunny side of life, but I reckon us humans are all prone to being contrary now and again…I just hope I never get as bad as the man in the joke 🙂
Have a great Saturday!
Last night’s video: A People and Their Quilts 12.
Tipper
Subscribe for FREE and get a daily dose of Appalachia in your inbox
There are some people who love to fuss, I think. Instead of seeing the glass half full it is always half empty. Then they wonder why life isn’t a happy experience. We all have struggles and meeting them with an attitude of this to shall pass and seeing them as learning experiences helps in getting through them. It does seem some people make life harder then it really is. This brought a chuckle today. Thanks for your funny story. Blessings to all.
I know that I can get contrary at times, but I catch myself and try to change my mood—Life is too short, and I want to enjoy it! I always pray that I will grow more patient with age and not more contrary. Lol! That poor old man in the joke was just someone who needed attention even if he had to get negative attention with his contrary nature. God Bless ya’ll!
I think older people back in the day were more contrary . I don’t see hiw that waitress waited on him ir the cook. ( not me )
Wonderful! Tipper, that excerpt from “Curing the Cross-Eyed Mule” make me laugh until I cried. Thanks! In the mirror of those words I saw myself. How often have I, in misguided attempts to elicit the care and concern of someone else, been contrary? Plenty. And because I have been that way, I have learned to be patiently considerate toward other complaining, contrary folk. Thanks again!
Now that’s contrary!! I would have turned the plate around and said, ” sorry about that and have a wonderful rest of the day.” “Kill them with kindness” as Mama would have said.
Loved Katie’s jokes from the video. She’s just so happy. Always a pleasure to see her and Corie too. I have said it before, you and Matt have raised some wonderful daughters. I know y’all are so proud of them!!
Thank you for picking A People and Their Quilts. I have enjoyed seeing the quilts and the amazing stories about them. Those quilts just get to me, some so old and tattered but yet all of them are beautiful. I sure do wish I could have interviewed those folks from way back and the story about Emma sure touched my heart.
Hahaha…..love it!
So funny and describes a few people I’ve known in my life. Loved it. Morning Pressley, Corie, Austin, Olive and the Wilson families. Have a great St. Patrick’s Day and prayers up for you all and the babies. Jennifer
Lord have mercy! Don’t know if I would have put up with one soooo contrary. My husband and I traveled through the Cumberland Gap about 15 years ago and there were beautiful farms through that area. Love seeing all those beautiful quilts!
I laughed at Katie’s jokes too, especially the duck one:) I heard Minnie Pearl tell one about brother trying to get his mule to go in the barn and couldn’t because the mules ears were too long so he sawed off the top of the door frame so the mule could go in. She said well brother, it’s a dirt floor, why did you just dig out a little path and he could walk right in? Brother said, it wasn’t his legs that were too long, twas his ears:)
Loved the joke, but oh how true it is with some people. I too have been contrary, more so in my younger years than now. I think as I grew older I just realized it’s not how I want to be remembered, so I asked God to change me. I’ve learned over the last few years to be content with most everything in my life and have improved greatly on not complaining. However, I’m still a work in progress. I’m thankful God loves me enough to understand it’s going to take a while with me. ☺️
So funny, I also have known people like that. I always felt thete was something lacking in their life, love, family friends…..
My family used the word “contrary” often–“you ole contrary thang.” Used when my siblings and I “acted up” or whined about something. Here’s a word I thought of this morning: “gamboling.” When we were rough-housing my parents would yell at us, “you children quit your gamboling or you’ll get a good whipping.”
gam·bol
/ˈɡambəl/
verb
gerund or present participle: gamboling
run or jump about playfully.
“the mare gamboled toward her”
Tricia-Fascinating! I have never heard that word before 🙂
He just fits into contrary perfectly. There are some that would find something wrong with anything. If you asked them to show you what you did wrong, they couldn’t do it….lol. The pictures you showed yesterday of the quilters brought tears to my eyes in some cases. The poverty level is so apparent that you could feel their needs but you could hear from their words they didn’t. Prayers for Granny and God’s Blessings on you guys….do we have a due date guess???
Glenda-not yet 🙂 Thank you for the prayers!!
Hey, I know some people like that. Reckon if I’m honest, I can be that way too at times. Hope everyone has a great day.
Well, I’ll be a suck egg mule, as Mr. Honeycutt (his actual name) said on “Rio Lobo” (?). I used to hear contrary all the time growing up but have not heard it in many years. Thanks for the reminder. If you start the day out contrary, you must have got up on the wrong side of the bed. A contrary person will argue with a sign post.
AND, if they are on a farm, they will argue with a fence post.
The southeastern sky here looks like strips of bacon this morning!
Haha, no pleasing that fellow!
I’d a said “Well, one of them eggs might not of come from a chicken, you didn’t specify.”
or “I’m sorry, I must of sat the plate down backwards!”
That’s a good joke! Loved Katie’s jokes from her video. No wonder that man had ro eat at a restaurant every morning! No woman would be the wife of a man that contrary! lol
On the contrary. You have not only kept the Blind Pig posts consistently positive, but have policed the comments with care to insure that we old crumudgeons don’t accidentally trigger avalanches of negativity. Thank you Tipper.
I remember reading a story about a man’s wife falling off a foot log and being drowned. Everyone but the husband were searching down stream for her body, when asked why he was looking upstream, the husband said his wife was so contrary her body would have washed upstream. He also said he had learned in order to be able to do what he wanted to do he would tell her the opposite of what he really wanted to do because she wouldn’t agree to anything she thought he wanted to do. I have a copy of The Cross-Eyed Mule and there are a lot of funny jokes/stories in it.
I hope everyone realizes the story I mentioned in my earlier comment was wrote as a humorous story and was not true. I think the title of the story was Mary Contrary. In the same book the author writes about a man’s ugly daughter, I promise you have never heard of anyone being this ugly-not even me!
I mean I don’t think I am even that ugly, just close.