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An Inspirational
Story
by Peary Perry |
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| “When
in the course of human events you fail, then try, try again.” I believe
those words or something close to them are probably carved in stone
somewhere. Maybe not, but they should be. The point being that you
must never, ever quit trying. I recently started a new column based
on trivia called ‘Ponder Points’. This is something new for me and
like the one carried here, it’s designed to keep me on the lookout
for new things to write about every week. Well, last week I wrote….”Paul
Revere was said to have ridden into Concord yelling, “The British
are coming, the British are coming.” When actually he never made it,
and what he said by those in the know was …”The regulars are about.”
The ink had not hardly dried on this until I received an e-mail from
a kindly soul who wished to correct me and that she had it on good
authority that what he actually said was …”The regulars are ALL about.”
I sent her a thank you and advised her that since it was a long time
ago, it’s possible that he was misunderstood. Being the diligent person
that I am, always concerned over getting my facts correct thus making
better and more informed readers, I decided to do some more research.
Boy, was I shocked! After spending hours upon hours of my time, I
determined that we were both wrong. What Paul was actually heard to
say on that fateful night actually was…”The British are selling sauerkraut.”
This was of particular concern to Paul since he was planning to open
the first string of sauerkraut stores in this country. His attorneys
were drawing up his franchise agreements and he had gotten over 15
colonists to invest their life savings into these new ventures. If
the British were going into the sauerkraut business, then the potential
for serious competition along with possible financial ruin were a
real possibility. Unfortunately, a grown man riding like crazy through
town on horseback in the middle of the night screaming something about
sauerkraut didn’t call anyone to arms. My research also shows that
old Paul did this about the time the local taverns were closing and
the villagers were somewhat used to such things. As an aside, you
can tell that the colonists of the day were prone to imbibe by the
words of “Yankee Doodle”. As you recall old Doodle …”Stuck a feather
in his hat and called it macaroni.’ Now, I think most of us can tell
the difference right off between a piece of spaghetti and a feather.
That is unless you had consumed several pints of beer, ale or whatever
the local “Boar and Hog” pub had on sale at happy hour. No, I’m sad
to report that Paul acted somewhat hastily and gave up on the idea
of a national chain of sauerkraut shops or shoppes as he planned to
call them. Instead, he thought about what to try next and was a visionary
in his thinking about cookware. Paul decided that a new nation would
have new houses. New house would have new kitchens. New kitchens would
need new microwaves. No, wait that came later. New kitchens would
need pots and pans. So, Paul sat down and designed Revereware. After
making a huge success of this idea, he put his efforts into commemorative
plates, saucers and figurines. Most of us are unaware that his “Colonial
Plate of the Month Club” was the inspiration for the post office with
his new friend, Ben Franklin. After all, he had to devise some method
to deliver all of this stuff to the villages once it was sold. He
couldn’t just ride through town yelling…”Your plates are here.” He
just never gave up. There’s an inspirational story if there ever was
one. |
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