Poor Communication

Summer is a time for family vacations. I hope none of you have the same experience as the lady in this story.

There was a nice lady who was a little old-fashioned. She was planning a week’s vacation in Florida at a particular campground, but she wanted to make sure of the accommodations first.

Uppermost in her mind were the toilet facilities, but she could not bring herself to write “toilet” in her letter. After considerable deliberation, she settled on “bathroom commode,” but when she wrote that down, it still sounded too forward, so she wrote the letter to the campground and referred to the bathroom commode as the “BC.” “Does the campground have its own BC?” is what she actually wrote. The campground owner was baffled by the euphemism so he showed the letter around to several campers, but they could not decipher it either. Finally the campground owner figured she must be referring to the location of the local Baptist Church, so he sat down and wrote her this response:

“Dear Madam, I regret very much the delay in answering your letter, but I now take pleasure in informing you that a BC is located nine miles north of the campground and is capable of seating 250 people at one time. I admit it is quite a distance away if you are in the habit of going regularly, but no doubt you will be pleased to know that a great number of people take their lunches along to make a day of it. They usually arrive early and stay late.

The last time my wife and I went was six years ago, and it was so crowded we had to stand up the whole time we were there. It may interest you to know that right now there is a supper planned to raise more money to buy more seats. They are going to hold it in the basement of the BC.

I would like to say it pains me very much not to be able to go more regularly, but it is surely no lack of desire on my part. As we grow older, it seems to be more of an effort, particularly in cold weather.

If you decide to come down to our campground, perhaps I could go with you the first time, sit with you and introduce you to all the other folks. Remember, this is a friendly community.”