EPISODE 1086: LETTER TO A THIEF
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alan skeoch
Jully 22, 2024
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Newspaper clipping — after robbery — hard to read I know
THE ROBBERY
“Never be hostage to fortune, Alan.” said Evan Cruikshank a few days after the robbery.
Little consolation initially. The theif was bold as brass. He (or she) took it easy …even
took time sort the dishes only taking the best. Same applied to the furniture. Onlythe best was
taken. Most embsrassng to me was the fact he (or she) backed my trailer top to the
front door of the farm to make the loading easier.
That happened decades ago. Today I found an old newspaper clipping written after the robbery
titled LETTER TO A THIEF. Maybe he would feel a bit guilty.
Fat chance of that. Fat chance of guilt that is. The thief did respond though sending a letter
telling me to shut up or he (or she) would set the house on fire. Now that scared me.
I shut up. Kept my funny remarks to myself.
FUNNY REMARK
The thief stole the big round dining room table…huge thing made of oak,… expandable, fine
carpentry. I thought the thief would want the history of the table to help him sell it (must have been a
man or a big woman or both)
TEETH MARKS
“You may have noticed the deep scratch marks in the table. They are not scratches.
Those marks were made by Andrew’s teeth on his birthday party. Marjorie had stuffed his
cake with wrapped coins…nickles, dimes and quarters. Unfortunately Andrew got a piece
with notihng in it. So he threw a tantrum and bit the table. The teeth marks are there.
A kind of provenance as the art dealers say
SILVER LINING
Remember how this story opened. i.e. “Never be hostage to fortune” In short “Never
let things own you.” A sure recipe for unhappiness.
Well we had a choice after the robbery. Sell the farm or restore the farm.
We chose to gut the old farmhouse of 1870’s vintage. The thief had already
done part of the work.
Would I shake hands with the thief? Maybe I had already done that and
did not know it.
alan
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