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Writer's pictureJoy Johnson Brown

The Kitchen Sink




Special Sale for Book VIII


In this blog: The Kitchen Sink


Notes from Joy


BOOB Girl Talk for your groups


The BOOB Girl Series


Special $10.00 Sale for Book VIII in Month 8: Learning to Love Willie.



“You look pensive,” Hadley said, smiling softly at Robbie, who sat across from her at table 12 in the Meadow Lakes empty dining room.


“It’s our ‘80’s Party time," Robbie said.


Every year Robbie’s high school class had a party in their small hometown outside of Omaha.


“80’s Party?” Marge asked.


Robbie nodded. “All of us from my class are in our 80’s, so if you’re alive you’re invited for a weekend of memories, simple meals and laughter.”


“Sounds great!” Marge said.


“What I was thinking about,” Robbie said, “was our kitchen sink story.”


It was quiet for several seconds while Robbie looked out the big windows and seemed to be gathering her thoughts.


She took s deep breath and began the story:

“The prettiest girl in our high school class was a big-boned blonde Swede named Katerina Carlson. Kat.


She went off to the University after graduation, lived the dream, married a med student, then, after just a couple of years, Kat came home – divorced.


Another year passed. Kat lived with her parents. I saw her once in a while, beautiful as ever. Then – THEN – word got out from telephone to telephone, and this was before emails and cell phones – and the conversation was always the same:


“Kat Carlson is marrying Ted Cook!!”


“Ted Cook!!??”


“Yes!! Ted Cook!! Kat Carlson is marrying Ted Cook!!”


Robbie looked around at them and smiled.


“Ted Cook was a big old dirt farmer, as plain as the dirt he farmed. And the most beautiful girl in town was marrying big old Ted Cook.”


The room was totally quiet as Hadley, Mary Rose and Marge leaned in to hear even better.


“Well, they married. Kat became a farm wife and they had four children. Years flew by and we had our 50th class reunion and a Girls Brunch. At that brunch, Kat made two announcements.


Ted was now totally deaf. Nothing could help, but he could lip-read Kat just fine, so they did great.


And she had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

We all stared at her, but she just smiled and said, “I’m not afraid. Ted will take care of me.” Then she told us about the Kitchen Sink.


"So, he’s totally deaf. And sometimes I get SO MAD at him, and I just stand at my kitchen sink and give him Holy Hell. He doesn’t hear a word, and it never hurts his feelings."


They all chuckled.


“Then,” Robbie went on, “One of our friends died and we went back for her funeral. All the classmates were standing around together. I was next to Kat, and she was standing in front of her husband, Ted, who towered over us all. She looked at me, reached up, patted his chest and said, ‘I thank God for this man every day of my life.'


“So, life went on,” Robbie continued. Hadley stood up and poured four fresh cups of coffee.


“Ted had the whole class grouped on his email and he kept us up to date as Kat deteriorated. Finally, just a couple of years ago, he wrote, ‘I put Kat on Hospice today. It was the hardest thing I’ve done in my whole life.’”


Robbie leaned back in her chair, smiled, and looked around the table.


“I wrote back to him,” Robbie went on. “I said, ‘Ted, Kat was so lucky to have you.’ I told him about Kat saying, ‘Ted will take care of me,’ and ‘I thank God for this man every day of my life.’ I said, ‘You took fantastic care of her. And you always had the prettiest girl in town.’”

He wrote back and said, ‘Thank you, Robbie. We really enjoyed our marriage. We never argued about anything.’”


Robbie looked at the girls and smiled.


Marge’s face broke into a huge grin. “He never knew about the kitchen sink,” she said.


Robbie smiled and nodded,

A tiny tear slid down her cheek.


“That is a beautiful love story,” Hadley added. And a tear that matched Robbie’s crept out of her eye and traveled down toward her chin.

A Special $10.00 Sale for Book VIII for Month VIII!


Each month, we will run a special, “Book of the Month,” opportunity.

If you have friends with birthdays or anniversaries in July

If your book VIII is getting dog-eared and old and needs replacing.

If you want to make a special gift to a nursing home

If your library needs a BOOB Girl boost.

Or if someone is grieving and you need a “just because” gift

Here’s your chance.


BOOB Girls VIII: Learning to Love Willie

$10 (regularly $14.95)

We will ship to anyone you wish to gift with a note that it is from you.

Free shipping.

It’s an inexpensive and great surprise gift that brings laughter and smiles.

We will put it in a beautiful BOOB Girl gift bag as a special gift.



Learning to Love Willie

This fun comedy mystery is a take-off on Nursery Rhymes. Each rhyme used tells its own history. We Willie Winkie was written to give children their own town crier. Running upstairs and downstairs throughout the book are the evil Dr Fell (I do not like thee, Dr Fell, the reason why I cannot tell, but this I know and know full well. I do not like thee, Dr. Fell) is out to murder Willie Winkie and take over his Winkie Wear – absolutely horrible nightwear for seasoned women.


There is a horrendous fashion show which nearly burns down the Meadow Lakes dining room. We meet Merry Mary, quite contrary, who owns a truck garden outside of Omaha. An old woman who has so many children she doesn’t know what to do, hides Willie in plain site and Marge Aaron gets to use her Red Cane more than once.


Our guarantee: if you don’t laugh out loud, you get your money back.


A note from Joy


As I leafed through “Willie” for this blog, I found a delightful reading by Wiley Vondra after a good dinner with the girls at Happy Hollow Country Club.

“Wiley stood and recited perfectly:

I started out with nothing and I still have most of it.

My wild oats have turned into prunes and All Bran

Funny – I don’t remember being absent minded.

All reports are in. Life is now officially unfair.

If all is not lost, where is it?

Kids in the back seat cause accidents. Accidents in the back seat cause…kids.

The only time the world beats a path to your door is when you’re in the bathroom.

The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth.”



The girls and I wish you safety, health and good times.


Now that we are opening up some, I will be available for speaking. The BOOB Girls Talk will be shorter, 30-40 minutes, and will be available only within 150 miles of Omaha.


For information, email joy.johnson@msn.com or call at 403-639-2030,


This is a laugh out loud talk that includes how older women are beautiful and BOOB Girl Books will be waiting for you.


Talks scheduled:

Glenwood Library to be announced


Bellevue NE Library Oct 11

Lakeside Red Hats, Omaha NE, Dec 14






Credit cards: website or 402-639-2939

Check to Joy Brown at

8141 farnam, #322, Omaha NE 68114



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