Dear Abby: I am a 14-year-old girl with a story to tell.
Last night about 9 p.m., I was walking home alone from the public library. (I live eight blocks from there.) The wind was blowing hard, and it was very cold. Besides, I had a load of books under my arm.A car pulled up alongside the curb, and a nice-looking man opened the door and asked, "Want a ride?" He looked OK and was about my father's age, and my feet were about to drop off with freezing, so I said yes and hopped in.
He asked me where I was going and I told him. He drove me there, but before he let me out, he said, "Young lady, I want you to promise me that you will NEVER again accept a ride with a stranger, no matter how `nice' he appears to be. I happen to be a decent man, but you took an awful chance. You can't tell ANYTHING about a man by the way he looks.
"Two years ago, I had a niece about your age who accepted a ride with a strange man, and three days later, they found her lifeless body in a ditch four miles from your home. She'd been raped and strangled."
Abby, I promised that man I would never again get into a car with a stranger. And I never will.
Lucky
Dear Lucky: Thanks for sharing your experience. It contains valuable advice.
Dear Abby: While vacationing recently, my husband and I stayed at a lovely motor inn. When we left, I took some ashtrays and glasses. These things had the name of the inn on them, and I thought they'd make nice souvenirs.
I was under the impression that guests are expected to take such things as souvenirs, and the cost of the items is built into the price of the room. My husband says I am wrong.
Why then would the inn have its name on everything if not to advertise? Are guests expected to take souvenirs?
- Thief or Collector?
Dear Thief: I would advise against taking anything. Before checking out, ask the manager for a souvenir, and he'll either sell or give you one.
Dear Abby: First, let me explain that I have four children (two still in diapers), a nine-room house to take care of, and no one to help me. When my husband comes home from work, he always asks, "What did you do all day?"
Abby, I could sock him! How should I answer him?
- Boiling
Dear Boiling: Don't answer him. But tomorrow, do absolutely NOTHING! And when he comes home and finds the beds unmade, breakfast and lunch dishes in the sink, the laundry basket piled high with unironed clothes, and not a trace of supper started, if he asks what you did all day, say, "You're always asking me that. Well, today, I didn't do it!"
Dear Abby: Is it possible to marry a dead person using a proxy?
In our area, a teenage boy drowned a few weeks ago, and he had planned to marry soon. They had a license already.
I understand the girl was pregnant and she wanted a name for her child, so they were married at the funeral parlor. Is that possible? Can you find out for me?
- Curious in Pennsylvania
Dear Curious: You don't need a Philadelphia lawyer to hunt up a precedent for this. The answer is no, it's not possible.