>> “One of my aunts had a gun safe, they all carry guns but when they went to her house she would not let them sit at the table armed.” <<
.
Sounds like my mother. My Bro and I carried our .22s with us almost everywhere we went, but when they came in the house, they had to be put away.
Ready for a long story? You’re gonna get it anyhow...
Thirty or so years ago I met a young lady who had moved from Jacksonville, Florida to Poulsbo, Washington all by herself. We dated for several years and I heard all about her deceased father who had been an “organizer” for the unions in Florida. He had moved to Florida from Philadelphia late one night while she was a small child.
During the time we were together I worked on a construction project of a shopping center. The entire project was owned by a man with a very Sicilian name. We got along fine until one day I noticed his crews doing stuff that just wasn’t legal. If an inspector called them on it they’d just have a cup of coffee while the “old man” made a phone call and then everyone would go back to work.
In my idiocy I thought I should do something about this so I called a local TV reporter and told him all about it. He assured me that he had been wanting to get something on this particular Sicilian for a long time and that I should not talk to anyone else about the matter until he had some spare time to work on it. I thought I had done the right thing.
The next day I was laid off.
Two months later I was back on the job and the “old man” was right there to greet me. He was pleasant and friendly but I knew that he knew and he was just letting me know who was “boss.”
Remember the girlfriend? We were driving home one night and I told her about my little experience. She asked me the name of the “old man” and when I told her she dug around in her purse, pulled out a small notebook and leafed through the pages until she found what she was looking for. She read something in there - I don’t know just what - and then after a pause said, “Leave that man alone. He can hurt you.”
I was impressed. Especially since she always carried a snub-nosed .38 in that purse, ostensibly in case one of her father’s old “friends” dropped by.