Monday, November 15, 2004

Earl The Pearl

Peachy and I just tried the new 'Fresh Cirtis Listerine Pocket Paks', the breath strips that melt in your mouth. We came to the same conclusion, they taste like Halls Mentho-Lyptus. Not the better choice of breath strips.

This made me think about a guy I worked with at my last job. He was an older man, easily pushing 70 years old. He was retired from the Navy and worked so he didn't get bored. An old Navy cook named Earl. Of course everyone called him Earl the Pearl. He really was a pretty good guy.

At least twice a week he would sidle up to me and lean over conspiratorially, reach into his lab coat pocket and pull out.... a Halls Mentho-Lyptus! He'd do it like an old Grandpa would do with a Grandchild, you know, sneak them candy when the parents weren't looking. That's how he meant it too. Like it was a treat. (He sucked on them all the time.) After a while, I had a labcoat pocket full of assorted Halls flavors. I never told him to stop though. I think it made him happy passing on his perceived goodies.

I remember one time old Earl and several of us were standing with his Supervisor working out plans to get through the latest crisis. We were right in the middle of his department where a flurry of activity was going on. He started to tell us his opinion about what he thought we should do when something came toppling out of his mouth and bounced several times on the floor. I immediately thought it was a Halls (what else) but it wasn't. Turned out to be one of his teeth just fell right out while he was talking. He looked down at it, looked back at us, picked it up and put it into his pocket and continued speaking right where he had left off. I was holding my breath, almost ready to explode, trying not to laugh.

Later he came over to my office and we both had a good laugh about it. Old Earl had a good sense of humor to go with his Halls breath.

I heard he passed away not too long ago. Too bad. He was a good guy. Sometimes the old timers are better to know than the not-so-old timers.

RIP Earl the Pearl.

2 comments:

peachy said...

HA!!HA!!

Oops. You didn't tell me he died! RIP Earl the Pearl. Two of us are thinking of you today. :)

Jammie J. said...

Oh my Lord, what a story. My grandpa had a friend named Clarence Waldeen. He was really, really big with itty bitty chicken legs. He always smelled funny (bad hygiene) and he, too, sucked on cough drops always. He traveled around in one of those trucks with a camper thing on the back with his little yippy dog. Clarence passed on ... I wonder what happened to his dog.