Just as I was ready to commit murder most foul against some--probably innocent--clerk at Verizon for making it nearly impossible to perform the simplest billing change function this morning , a courier showed up with the hat and changed my whole mood.I had run into Dudley Woody, a lawyer at Woods Rogers, yesterday and he asked about the baseball cap I had on ("You a long-suffering O's fan?" he asks. "Nope," says I, "I'm an Orioles hat fan.") and I explained that I collect hats and the one I was wearing was on top of the pile that morning.
Then he told me about his collection, which included a Milford Mudlarks cap. I was puzzled for a minute. Then it hit me: Gil Thorpe, the long-running newspaper comic strip. When I was with the local daily many years ago in Roanoke, we ran it on the sports pages and it must have run for 40 years. Gil was the coach at Milford High and every former 5-foot-8, 140-pound football player in the US of A followed Gil's adventures.
So this morning, as the babies next door at my office are screaming like nuclear warning sirens and Verizon is trying its very, very corporate best to shorten my life, this guy comes in with a package, I open it and it hits me: the M is for Milford and Dudley Woody is a sweet and considerate man. Thanks, Dudley.
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