"The Phonebooth Meeting"------Fiction

(Ed. note. These tales can also be found on Itunes and can be downloaded free to your Ipod for your listening pleasure.)


Well ....it has been real hectic lately here in Evansville....with the school board election primary and all....and I was ready after the primary to just head out of town for a break. Yes. It is hard to believe. Sometimes one can just get too much of all those coffee klotches and Eagles meetings. Sometimes it is so right to just have a moment to commune with nature---.

After that long and winding road up Hwy 10 north of the Twin Cities, I settled in at the Spruce
Goose Motel, where all the comforters are premium down, and where all the beds pull down from the wall...and where there is always a mini dove bar in the ash tray to give a little hint of upscale country.

I headed over to the coffee shop to met my old friend, Herman, the country boy lawyer, who was also on the Normal School Board. I had spent a long time thinking on the drive and wasted no time in getting to the point.

"Herman," I asked, "How do you handle all those controversial meetings up here in Normal? In Evansville, we seem to have all of them in packed conference rooms with a capacity of 10. With 25 crammed in to the room, one can hardly breathe, must less ask questions."

"Shucks Wolfman", ( That's what he always called me) a conference room that seats 10 is HUGE compared to up here in Normal. That is the lap of luxury. Here we have the meetings in phone booths."

"Phone booths?" I replied in a shocked voice.

"How can that be?"

Herman went on. " I am a lawyer, Wolfman. Yes it is important to have "open" meetings, but there ain't no rule that they have to be BIG meetings---- Unless of course they are a BIG or "Building Improvement Grant meetings---then they are inherently big.

"Up here we just have the meeting and welcome everyone. Then we have the meeting in the local PHONE BOOTH. The chairman gets to sit in the chair of the phone booth, and then we just all kinda gather around."

"Wherever did you learn this technique," I asked.

"It's real simple, Wolfman. Years ago during law school, I was reading the "Art of War" and "The Rules of Civil Procedure" by Billy Bob---- that was always my favorite. I found Prosser on Torts to be very boring. Billy Bob had a real entertaining way of writing. Anyway.....I realized how to bring the two texts together in a creative way. The "Phonebooth meeting" was born. What could be MORE open. The guys just love it. Huddled around the booth with their architectual drawings and all. Real cozy.

Well. I could see that Herman was not going to be helpful. I just got in the car and headed back to good old Wisconsin....Where we have meetings in spacious rooms....where folks do not just gather around a semi-circle and hide their architectual drawings ....... Where we have meetings in large rooms with audio and video capability.

Alleluia.