Laughter is good for the soul.
If that is true, it is well with my soul as well as the souls of the other three Golden Girls.
Patrice Lyttle, Joan Gamble, Linda Butler, and I just returned from our annual Golden Girls trip to Tampa. We needed the time away and a few days at the beach to relax, throw our thoughts into the waves, and laugh.
We knew there would be stories, but not anything like the stories we have to tell.
We were in a hurry to get to breakfast the morning after we arrived. We needed coffee and French Toast and Belgian Waffles. We couldn’t get to First Watch fast enough. Four black coffees would wake up our brains.
We should have had a wake-up cup before we left the house. Apparently, our brains were still asleep, especially the one at the wheel. They say that accidents happen close to home. Two houses down is about as close as you can get.
I wanted to show them a house by the house next door. One of us – we will call her Blanche – thought she could hit the gas and get there in seconds. She did. The only thing was that she was not paying attention to her backup camera or the fact that she was not driving in a straight line.
We heard a loud thump. It was trash day so we thought we had hit a trash can. We were wrong.
There, lying limp on the grass was the poor pitiful mailbox of 9086. YIKES!
I rang the doorbell. No one answered.
Blanche and Dorothy sent me running back to the house for screwdrivers and hammers and WD-40. When I returned, they had the mailbox put back together on the base. The only thing was the PVC piping was a bit funky and the rusted screw was beyond repair.
A stranger’s damaged mailbox was no match for the Four Golden Girls and a Screwdriver! (The fourth Girl is holding the camera.) (Photo provided)
We found a new screw in Chuck’s toolbox. Dorothy and Blanche were trying their best to feed the screw into the PVC while Rose held it up. We definitely gave the neighbors something to talk about.
All of a sudden, we heard a female voice. “HELLO! HELLO!” The four of us looked around. We saw no one.
We realized it was the lady who owned the home. She and her husband had been watching us the entire time from their Ring Doorbell Camera while they were on vacation. I’m sure we had been quite the entertainment. Her husband wanted us to know he would fix it when they got home.
We all apologized and told them it was too late, we had got’er done. Their mailbox was standing tall. We left it better than it was before we hit it. The mailbox had a new screw and the PVC didn’t have a scratch on it.
HGTV has Two Chicks and a Hammer but Tampa has Four Golden Girls and a Screwdriver. I didn’t help repair the mailbox. I was just the go-fer and the photographer.
There was so much laughter over the next six days we spent in Tampa and St. Pete. I have more stories. Some will leave you shaking your head. My brave friends still travel with me, knowing all too well there will be challenges and moments to remember.
The Four Golden Girls even made it on the local news in Tampa Bay when their flight was “paused.” (Photo provided)
As we approached the Tampa airport to fly home, we found out that Southwest Airlines had put a “pause” on our flight. We had never been “paused” before. Ariel, from Fox 13 Tampa Bay, was reporting and looking for travelers to interview. Apparently, we looked like a fun, approachable group, or perhaps we looked a bit baffled and bewildered. Whichever it was, we made the evening news.
There will be more Golden Girl trips. There will be more adventures. And there will definitely be more laughter … our souls need it.
Janet Hart Leonard can be contacted at janethartleonard@gmail.com or followed on Facebook or Instagram (@janethartleonard). Visit janethartleonard.com.