Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com

Sometimes, it's just one of those days.  The "Miami News," December 5, 1951:

As the wife of Ben Grenald told him on the telephone, it was a riot.

There was a monkey in a tree.

Grenald was at the Moderne pharmacy at 555 41st St., Miami Beach.  He owns it.

The wife, Selma, telephoned from her home at 5130 Alton Rd.

"Come on home, Ben," she said.  "This is a real riot.  You'll die."

Patrolman John Ward was called by Mrs. Grenald, too.

He was dancing around under the tree with a bunch of bananas trying to get the monkey down.  The monkey was swinging around like Tarzan.

All the kids in the neighborhood were around whooping and laughing.

That was when the Grenalds' boy, Douglas, got into the red ants.  Two-year-old Douglas screamed.

So did his sister and his little cousins and the kids from the neighborhood.

Grenald dunked him in the tub.  Then he and Mrs. Grenald and Douglas went back to watch the monkey.

That was when the house caught fire.

Smoke started pouring out the kitchen windows.  Mrs. Grenald had left a frying pan full of grease on the stove.  It set fire to the curtains and the woodwork started to burn.

Grenald finally put out the fire with salt.

The smoke made him sick.

Mrs. Grenald put all the rags they had used to clean up the mess in the washing machine.  She nursed Grenald and one of the kids opened the door of the washing machine.

That was how the house came to be flooded.

When they noticed the water it was four inches deep in the kitchen.  The monkey got in the tree about 4 in the afternoon.

The Grenalds finished soaking up the water at 1 a.m.

The maid was sick and went home.

Grenald doesn't know what became of the monkey.

I do admire a family that shows the true Strange Company spirit.