When I was in high school (a long time ago) I worked one summer for a guy planting acres of tomatoes. I lived in a very small town where everyone knew everyone else. Two of my class mates (girls) were also planting the tomatoes with me.

One day I arrived at the field early and needed to urinate. Which I did openly in the field as only the boss was there. I instinkedly covered my tracks, like a cat, covering the wet spot with dry dirt. The boss made some teasing remark about me acting like a cat. When the girls showed up he started referring to me as “kitty”. He kept this up during the remaining days of the planting, much to my embarrassiment. Of course he thought it just a joke. But it was no joke to this teen-ager. He would use this “put down” any time he saw me, even after the work was done.

A few years later this “boss” was operating a small grocery store in our small town and he wanted to have a liquor license. So he asked some of his customers to write letters of recommendation to be submitted with his application to the licensing board. My Mother was one of his customers and liked this man and agreed to honor his request. On hearing of this from my Mother I offered to write the letter for her. She gladly agreed.

Well, I think you know the ending of this story. I wrote the letter but sent it direct to the licensing bureau.

He didn’t get the liquor license.