Uncle Carl and Aunt Tillie

Uncle Carl and Aunt Tillie

fiction
edward w pritchard

Uncle Carl married Aunt Tillie when he was 16 and she was 15. They lived and worked together for 42 years and then out of the blue, at least to us, they suddenly divorced. They both then lived alone the rest of their lives and each exhibited eccentric behavior; not dangerous behavior but unusual and certainly out of character.

Uncle Carl always worker 6 days a week 12 hours a day. He worked two body shops and later bought and sold cars at auction and then resold the improved product. In time Uncle Carl became modestly wealthy for an uneducated man, for Uncle Carl often told his nieces and nephews that he had dropped out of high school at 16 to get married.

Sadly Uncle Carl treated Aunt Tillie unfairly in the divorce. She was a fair person and didn't want to hurt him so she eventually ended up with about 20% of the assets. She worked over at the cable company [ see related story Aunt Tille] until she was nearly 70 just to get by.

Uncle Carl sold his body shops and took the money and out of boredom began to display some strange behavior. I had worked for Uncle Carl one Summer and at first he would ask me political questions concerning the news of the day. Eventually Uncle Carl began to watch a lot of right wing TV shows and listen to strange stuff on the radio.

Uncle Carl rented several free standing signs and placed them with political messages all over our town. In time he used the signs to leave cantankerous messages about our local politicians and their policies and procedures. Sometimes he went so far as to criticize someones habits and actions.

Of course the politicians of all persuasions began to unite and fight back at the local level against Uncle Carl. He then used the bulk of his remaining funds to hire several local lawyers who for several years were able to keep the signs on the streets until Uncle Carl's money dried up.