Who's Hungry?

by Hattie Dyck

There’s no doubt that communication in Hants North has improved over the years since the late Graham Laffin served the area with a general store in Noel. This is evident by a story told to me by Ron Singer of Noel who enjoys laughing at some of the almost forgotten stories of the days before many cars or trucks, and the only distance communication being the party lines of then Maritime Tel and Tel.

   Mr. Laffin was manning the phone one morning and was getting a bit annoyed that it kept ringing at the same time he was helping a customer who could have needed some help mounting a bag of flour or sugar on his back. This would not be unusual in those days. If we have any doubt of phone frustrations we need only ask those who lived in those years especially when we had the multi party lines and the visitors on line who listened in to most calls whether they should be doing so or not.

   After the usual “Good morning” the customer said he was looking for a bag of horse feed. He also wanted to know the price of the bag of feed and directed Mr. Laffin to “send it up.”

   Because of a noisy line and maybe some frustration getting the call, Mr. Laffin didn’t recognize the voice.

   Although he personally knew most of his customers he wasn’t about to send anything to someone he didn’t know. He asked the caller again “Who wants the horse food?"

   The caller told him in no uncertain terms that it was “The horse of course." They quickly resolved the dilemma, and with the irritations all gone they had a good laugh.

This story has also been very much enjoyed by friends in the community for many years.