Category: Life with Pratts

A Pratt Family Christmas Eve

When RCA was RCA, Camden — named after the New Jersey city — was a subsidiary record label. My family played the Camden Christmas records every year. This was one of them.

I’d never heard the recording in stereo, until listening to it just now. Here is a transfer from the original mono record I heard as a kid, and have held onto all these years.

No Love for Pratts?

I licensed yesterday’s Arlo & Janis comic strip for one-time use from Universal Features Syndicate (aka Andrews McMeel). King Features Syndicate doesn’t license its comic strips for online use. They’re shared by linking to them, or when Comics Kingdom features them elsewhere, such as Facebook. Not wanting to run afoul of the syndicate and the National Cartoonists Society, I will limit myself to a teaser image from today’s Snuffy Smith strip. Here is the link, showing Snuffy being pleased that Hootin’ Holler will no longer be plagued by the presence of Pratts.

https://comicskingdom.com/barney-google-and-snuffy-smith/2025-12-16

Snuffy’s cartoonist is John Rose, who is a very good guy to meet, as I did at the NCS conference in August. I’m hoping the strip is an inside joke to Pratts who are friends of his! 🙂

The Sewer Saga – Final

Legally, responsibility for connecting the house to the town sewer, and paying for it, had undoubtedly passed to the Smiths. But my name was on the contract, and it was my money being held in escrow by the attorney, so I felt responsible. I told Mrs. Smith to not worry, and that I would take care of paying the balance.

Next, I called the contractor. He said he had also left several messages at the lawyer’s office, without receiving a reply. He knew his daughter had made friends with Mrs. Smith, and he felt badly about threatening to place a lien on the property, but the payment was more than 30 days overdue. I told him I’d get a bank check for payment in full and he’d see me in an hour.

[It’s worth noting that, back then, I could tell my co-workers, “Something’s come up, I have to leave, be back tomorrow,” without needing to stop on the way out to inform the boss. My understanding is, those days are gone. Employees now have their time tracked very closely.]

After getting a cashier’s check, I drove up to the contractor’s office. He made out a receipt and I used his fax machine to send it to the lawyer’s office. The cover sheet had a scribbled note demanding that my escrow money be reimbursed upon demand. I called the lawyer’s office, telling the woman who answered the phone to look for the fax. I was on my way there, and I was not happy.

First, I stopped by the house to give Mrs. Smith a copy of the PAID IN FULL receipt. It was a bit strange, being at the house again after a few months and seeing someone else living there. Mrs. Smith thanked me and we chatted briefly. So far, everything else with the house was okay.

After the near-catastrophe caused by BankBoston’s underwriting failure on the house I bought, I wasn’t going to tolerate more professional incompetence. With business screw-ups like those, I am not a nice guy. You wouldn’t want to be around me, let alone be on the receiving end.

I couldn’t see it being an honest oversight. It sure seemed to me the lawyer was stalling. Had she used the money to pay bills? Did she mingle it with other funds for a short-term investment?

When I got to the lawyer’s office I made my presence known, loudly. I didn’t care what the lawyer was doing, or who she was with, I demanded to see her immediately. She stepped out from her office, to find out what the commotion was about. I read her the proverbial riot act.

“My wife and I resented your insulting crack about the Smiths being screwed. Why haven’t you returned their calls? Aren’t you curious why the contractor has been leaving messages? He threatened to put a lien on the property! I have paid the bill myself, in full! You have the receipt! Who’s the one looking after the Smith’s best interests? I am!”

I cut off her weak comeback of, “We’re very busy –” “So you must not have time for any one of your clients!”

With my fury receding, I took a quick read of the room. The lawyer had three women working for her, and I could see they were suppressing smiles from witnessing their boss getting chewed out. The lawyer herself was looking nervous, even a bit scared.

I took a breath, settled down, and prepared to leave. I demanded a cashier’s check for the full amount of the escrow account to be delivered to me the next day via FedEx. I was told it was too late for next day delivery, but I’d have it the day after tomorrow. It was late in the day, and I reluctantly agreed. A check was delivered as promised, and I was done with the whole mess that had begun almost two years earlier.

The Sewer Saga – 6

We were finally able to start getting settled, after one of the most challenging summers of my life, until last year’s cancer treatments. When passing papers on selling our place, I made a point of giving our new phone number to the Smiths, in case they had any questions or problems.

A few months later, my wife called me at work. Mrs. Smith had called, and she was upset. There was a problem with the sewer hookup! I called her, and the story wasn’t at all what I feared it could be.

About a month after the closing, the town had given the okay for sewer connections on the street. Mr. Smith, holding the agreement I signed with the contractor, had contacted him. The contractor coordinated everything with the town. He pumped out the septic tank, did all of the digging and pipe work, and there were no problems with putting the house online with the sewer. What a relief hearing that!

There was a plot twist that was very gratifying to hear. Mrs. Smith had become instant best friends with the wife/mother next door. I was so pleased having confirmation that I was right about them being right for the neighborhood. Icing on the cake was that, unknown to me when I signed up with the contractor, his daughter was that neighbor!

Such good news! So, what was the problem?

The lawyer. She wasn’t releasing the escrow money to pay the balance of the contractor’s fee. The Smiths had called the lawyer’s office several times, providing all of the required information, but nothing was happening. Their calls weren’t being returned, the contractor wasn’t getting paid, and he was talking about needing to put a lien on the property.

I was furious!