Dear Readers: To my delight, I learned that world-famous evangelist Billy Graham quoted from my column in Minneapolis recently. I have run the letter several times, but here it is again:
Dear Abby: A young man from a wealthy family was about to graduate from high school. It was the custom in that affluent neighborhood for the parents to give the graduate an automobile. "Bill" and his father had spent months looking at cars, and the week before graduation, they found the perfect car.
On the eve of his graduation, his father handed him a gift-wrapped Bible. Bill was so angry that he threw the Bible down and stormed out of the house. He and his father never saw each other again. It was the news of his father's death that brought Bill home again.
As he sat one night going through his father's possessions that he was to inherit, he came across the Bible his father had given him. He brushed away the dust and opened it to find a cashier's check, dated the day of his graduation - in the exact amount of the car they had chosen together.
- Beckah Fink, Texas
Dear Beckah: I hope Bill read the Bible cover to cover, for it contained much that he needed to learn: "A foolish son is a grief to his father, and bitterness to her who bore him." (Proverbs 17:25)
Dear Abby: I have to get something off my chest. If I don't, I'll continue having migraines from pent-up anger. My husband and I have an exceptional relationship - or we did have until he took a business trip with his associates.
The first day he was gone was filled with tours, audits, business meetings, etc. In the evening, he called me since I was home with the flu. While I appreciated his thoughtfulness, when he explained the plans for the evening, I became upset. I wasn't happy about his going to a strip show, but I couldn't talk him out of it. (He said he had to go along with the boss' plans so he wouldn't be branded a henpecked husband.)
About 1:30 in the morning, he called from the club and tried to convince me that the "good ol' boys" conduct their business this way, and if he wanted to advance with the company, he had to follow suit. He was not exactly sober when he called.
I trust my husband, and I know that strippers don't date their customers (besides, I'm pretty good-looking myself), but I think it's disgraceful that wives have to put up with this kind of trash in the name of doing business. My husband argues that I don't understand the corporate world and don't have a clue about what it takes to succeed.
Abby, am I out of touch, or is my husband trying to sell me a bill of goods?
- Tired of Out-of-Town Monkey Business
Dear Tired: You are not out of touch, and your husband is trying to sell you a bill of goods. Tell him you're not buying.
Your Chuckle for the Day: "If I had done everything I'm credited with, I'd be speaking to you from a laboratory jar at Harvard."
- Frank Sinatra
To receive a collection of Abby's most memorable - and most frequently requested - poems and essays, send a business-sized, self-addressed envelope, plus check or money order for $3.95 ($4.50 in Canada) to: Dear Abby's "Keepers," P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Postage is included.)
1996 Universal Press Syndicate
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ONLINE
All of the Dear Abby columns since 1988 are available online. Search for "DEAR ABBY" in the Lifestyle section and the Deseret News archives.