Cartoon Classics

I was nervous today. The man from the moving company was to come over and assess our load for the moving company. I was dreading this for a long time because I am over a week behind on purging this place. That's not to say I havent done any more; Lord knows its only tuesday and there are 13 bags of trash on the side of the house. But still. I was planning on having the basement at least 1/2 way to acceptable. G_G_G_GONG_G_G_G (remember the Gong Show?) With those root canals last week, I not only got Gonged, I got TKO'd. So, I was nervous.

The phone rang ten minutes before he was due, and it was him, telling me he was on his way. Now, judging from his vocal demeanor, he was a laid back guy. He had a timidly familiar voice...one that sent me reeling through the years trying to place it. I couldnt imagine what he looked like, but he was not as asshole on the phone. Anyway, I still had to put on brave-face to open the door. I paced until he arrived. He was a smallish guy, jowly with kinda bulgy eyes, bald on top and a ben-franklin physique, but that voice...? And then it hit me! Droopy Dog! The cartoon about the anthropomorphic dog with the huge jowls and the whiney lisp! And suddenly, my cloud lifted and I was trying to suppress my amusement.

He was so cool! He was Droopy personified! He tottered through the house, holding his little clipboard, looking at me over his nose-glasses and chatting in his self-content little way. We meandered through the rooms and I had to suppress a laugh as I saw his little feet pattering around, moving faster than they were propelling him. I felt like I was stuck in a Roger Rabbit screen test. Hee hee!! Droopy wandered about, peeking into closets and cupboards, asking about certain pieces, particularly the hand-knotted oriental rug and the crystal chandelier, which he said they definitely would not handle.

I still found myself apologizing for the disorganized heaps and sticking closet doors and then Droopy began to chuckle. He was a really cool guy. He told me that he had been in business since the sixties (So he would remember the Gong Show and Droopy Dog!) and he had seen it all. He told me that his company held the record for the most tonnage hauled out of the smallest house in the decade of the 70s. Apparently, a couple living in a 1200 sf house, had 44,000 lbs of crap that took three moving vans 7 days to haul. They wouldnt part with a thing and his company had to pack and move multiple 7-foot high stacks of newspapers, boxes and boxes of rags, bottles tin cans, and probably more than a few kitchen sinks. Can you imagine moving all that shit across the country? So away went my anxiety and back came my smile. Droopy just smiled back. He assured me that we required only one van, even with the motorcycles and the miata. How about that? ::::Big grin:::::