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Do you ever like to people watch while you are just out on a routine day? I love to watch people that I don't know from a distance. To see their mannerisms and reactions with other people. No I'm not a peeping tom!!
?? Sunday we took a trip to a big flea market in Scottsboro, Ala. The labor day week end is the biggest event of the year. The giant flea market is held around the town square. People from all over the area bring there wares for the event.
My wife loves to go and search for things she is interested. I'm a walker and didn't see anything that appealed to me. It didn't take me long to see all the different sites of wares for sale.
The weather was great with a gentle breeze blowing, some places were in the shade but most were in the sun. After two trips around the area I decided to set and rest a while as my wife continued on in her quest for that great find.
I found a concrete bench in the middle of the courthouse yard just a short distance from all the action and began to watch the crowd go about viewing the market. Both young and old people were having a good time. An older man was setting on the bench as I sat down and begin a conversation with him. " You will have to talk loud I'm hard of hearing said the elder gentleman." We exchanged some small talk and the subject of where we are from came up. I'm from Brownsville says my bench partner, about 30 miles from here. I'm from Estill Springs, Tn. I reply, 60 miles from here. Yes, I've got kin in Estill ! Whats there name I ask? Low and behold his cousin lives a short distance from me and I know him, indeed a small world. The man even had a car wreck at the red light in our town years ago. Soon his wife comes and says lets go home so we say our goodbyes. I continue my watch, as I can see an old man and his son in front of my viewing point selling their honey products. They are selling quite a few jars of honey. One couple buys 2 gallons of his product at $26.00 a gallon and he is asked if he will take a check, yes he replies. The honey man must be well known as many people greet and shake his hand and the ladies give him some hugs. Just fun watching him and his customer's and friends interact. I laugh to myself as a hefty lady comes up and greets him. You don't know who I am do you? I'm Tracy she tells him as they exchange hugs and small talk about who she is and she worked for his doctor. I have an idea, if I see this lady walking later before I leave I will go up to her and said, Hello Tracy and give her a hug and see her reaction.
Soon I get my chance to put my plan into action and boy am I amazed at the results! Hello, Tracy how are you as I give her a big hug! She is hugging me back and says how are you and where is your wife. Now I am surprised at her reaction. Some more small talk and I walk away and see her standing watching me with a bewildered look on her face trying to figure who that old man was that gave her a hug.
My wife finally meets up with me and hasn't bought many items but wants to go back and see a doll she likes but says I'm not paying $50 for that doll. After a while she returns with our new baby doll and is proud to say I got it for $35. Great I reply are you ready to go home??? Thank goodness she was and we have a good drive back home. An 18 mile stretch of road between Ala. and Tn. through the mountain is so great, not a house or business in sight, you just don't see many places like this any more!!
At the time; no one in the six man golf group knew the fate of old Smiling Bob. We have to go back to last year to see how old Bob started. A golfer in the six man Senior Day group liked to hit a yellow golf ball during his rounds. He named his ball BOb. When he did good on his shots he praised Bob. Many times his words were harsh to old Bob. One day he hit a wayward shot that flew far to the left, over the fence and into the woods. BOb took a tongue lashing that day. Not to be out done Joe pulled another yellow ball from his golf bag and named it BOb Junior. Junior lasted two or three rounds before he too went sailing over a fence and deep into a cow pasture.
Another Bob, Bob II went into action and did great for several rounds before meeting his fate. Bob soon became a joke with the golfing group. Joe got heckles from his competitors when Bob preformed poorly and praises when he pulled off a good shot. Over a period of time several Bobs meet their fate out of bounds or lost. Out would come another Bob in the golfer's arsenal and some where along the line when Joe made a good shot he call him Smiling Bob. We all have seen the Smiling Bob commerical on TV.
An idea for a smiling Bob golf ball for Joe as a gag enters into the story. I had several yellow balls in a bucket I had found over the years. Most were found while I worked on a remodeling project near a golf course. You could walk out the back door and about 75 feet lay the fairway with a water hazard near. A yellow ball and a black magic marker and Smiling Bob was born. The ball was given to Joe one day before we started playing. I had talked to Bob and tried to hex the ball to do bad shots. He did some bad shots but did a lot of great shots. All the other golfers praised Smiling Bob when he didn't do good. Several weeks later poor old smiling Bob meet the same fate as his kinfolks. Joe hit him into a pond and we all knew that smiling Bob drown. But wait, Joe playing later with a friend found Smiling Bob at the pond when the water had gone down. Man was Joe happy to have old smiling Bob back to hit time and time again. No matter how hard Joe would hit Bob he would always be smiling when Joe found him for the next shot. He would hit him into a tree; Bob still showed that smiling face. Joe just couldn't knock that smile off the ball's face.
Smiling Bob was about to go on the ride of his life. The match was all even going into the final hole that eventful day. Joe was using his deceased brother's set of Ping clubs for the second time that he inherited. Joe teed up Bob and with a 5 iron and a perfect swing and contact smiling Bob went flying through the air toward the green some 140 yards away. Nice shot said his partner John as the ball hit softly onto the green, rolled on and disappeared into the cup for a hole in one. We all were excited for Joe's hole in one. Joe upon arriving at the green looked to the back of the green where his ball could have been, not there as he hesitated to walk up to the cup. Joe finally bends over and picks up Bob and says he's still smiling.
Congrads from all of us on Joe's hole in one. A moment in time none of us will ever forget. What's going to happen to Smiling Bob?? When one scores a hole in one usually the ball is mounted on a plaque to be viewed at the golfer's home as his trophy. I'm sure that big smile on Bob's face will last forever as will the smile on Joe's face each time he looks at SMILING BOB.
