Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Soderbergs and Bindernagles

My father-in-law, Herb, used to tell a story about an old couple from his home town of Beatrice, Nebraska. The husband was a Soderberg, and the wife, before she married, was a Bindernagle. They were always arguing, these two, and on still summer nights, with the windows open, their arguments could be overheard by everyone. All Herb heard one July night as he bicycled past their house was one remark, shouted at the top of his voice by the husband (“old Soddie,” Herb called him, and at this point in the story, before he could get the line out, he usually was laughing so hard he couldn’t be understood): “And the Soderbergs are just as good as the Bindernagles!”

I have no doubt that it was true about the Soderbergs. As for the Bindernagles, whenever I think of them they have faces like Pekingese dogs, probably because of Will Cuppy’s remark about these dogs, “Why do they look so conceited? They’re no better than us.”

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