A Legendary Old Curmudgeon

A story from 1867

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I love a good “National Day.” They’re a great place to start a History Buzz rabbit hole. According to NationalDay.com, today is National Curmudgeon Day.

19th century local newspapers featured local news, features from larger newpapers, and funny stories, like this one:

January 1867, Lawrence American and Andover Advertiser

CHARGED EXTRA –

‘Bill, did you ever take your wife home to thanksgiving?’

‘Yes, but I’ll be hanged if I’ll ever do it again.’

‘Why so?’

‘Well, you see dad-in-law invited all of us children home, and it was the first thing of the kind on record, and we supposed it would be the last; we all went. Lizzie never had any dowry, so that morning she said to me –

‘Hus, we’ll go without breakfast, so we can eats lots of dinner – I want to get what little I can out of the old fellow.’

‘So we did both go; and when we began to talk about leaving, I’ll be gibbeted, if the old curmudgeon didn’t present each one of the the company with bill for his dinner, and for Lizzie and I he’d charged extra because we’d eat so hearty. I never saw victuals so high before. No, he don’t come it on us again.’

An old curmudgeon illustration from the Andover Townsman 1894

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Thanks for reading!
~Elaine