Gossip- Full Circle - Both Audio and Text

“Ever met the Pinkertons?” I asked my friend, Nadine. “Well…Dexter’s wife, Matilda, is a gossip through and through, And yesterday my sister called to see if I might know if what Matilda’s aunt, Marlene, had said to her was true. “Edna - that’s my sister - said Marlene had just informed her, according to Matilda, Thelma Carter’s husband, Roy, Claimed he’d spotted Hattie’s daughter ridin’ ‘round in Jessup, sitting really close to Mabel Bugsby’s oldest boy! “Marlene, of course, knows very well that Edna ain’t no gossip, and Edna knows that I would be the last to spread the word, So keep this to yourself, Nadine, but - being my best friend - I thought I’d better ring you up and tell you what I heard. “If it’s true, their fam’lies ought to know, but if we tell them, ain’t no way around it, we’d betray Matilda’s trust, But it ain’t right - them young’ns sneakin’ ‘round behind their backs - so shouldn’t we find a way to let them know? I think we must!” “Of course we should,” Nadine agreed, “and - I don’t know Matilda - so I’ll call Hattie’s brother, Harold, and say what’s goin’ ‘round. Mabel’s husband , Delbert, bowls with Harold, so you can bet, by six p.m. tomorrow night it’ll be all over town!” “Great idea,” I praised the plan…“then Mabel learns from Delbert what it is that Thelma’s husband’s claiming to have seen, Then she, of course, calls Hattie up, and tells her what she’s heard…and she’ll have you and me to thank, plus all those in between!” Not at all surprisingly, when Hattie told her husband, finding out the way he had, Maurice became enraged. When he was young a girl would never sneak to neighboring towns and sit that close beside a boy - unless they were engaged. Maurice unwound on Dexter how the Bugsby’s oldest boy had scooped the loop in Jessup with their youngest daughter, Rose, Going on and on about how quickly rumors spread, and how, before ya’ know it, pret’ near everybody knows! Confident Maurice would feel the story he’d relayed was of the type that spouses understandably will share, Dexter told Matilda - after getting her to promise that what he had to tell her wasn’t going anywhere - Reminding her emphatically how raunchy gossip is, and how it has a tendency to leave the truth behind. Hiding “fingers crossed” behind her back, his wife replied, “I know it…ain’t it awful, dear? It simply blows my mind!”