NUTS IN MY NOODLES

When my friend's daughter Kandy, was about 10, her older sister had a paper route. Kandy said that she wished that she could make some money to buy Christmas presents. I told her she could come to my house and help me polish the silver and do other odd jobs. After her work she would stay for dinner.

After one evening, the next day her mother said, "Kandy said the funniest thing--that you had nuts in your noodles--and I told her she was crazy because I've eaten your noodles and you don't put nuts in them." She said that Kandy kept insisting that I had nuts in my noodles.

I laughed and said, "I fixed NOODLES ALMONDINE last night!"

At that time, mouton coats were very popular and Kandy, of course, wanted one. I told her mother that I would take her to Lazarus and we would get one. Of course the coats for kids were not real mouton, but furry imitations. Kandy chose a purple coat and she wore it to school the following day and the kids made fun of it and she didn't want to wear it again! Her mother insisted that I had spent a lot of money on that coat and she was going to wear it! Every day her mother would make her wear the coat and every day Kandy would take it off and hide it when she went to school. Her sister told on her and her mother told her that she would give the coat to another girl and Kandy could wear her old one. Kandy told her to go ahead.

Psychology 101 didn't work on Kandy!