“Have you seen the ghost of Tom
Long white bones with the skin all gone.
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh,ooh, ooh ooh, poor old Tom,
Wouldn’t it be chilly with no skin on?”
The other evening I turned on the lamp on my night stand in the bedroom. No light. I replaced the bulb. No light. I took my shower and attempted to use the hair dryer. It didn’t work. Hum!
Gene checked the breakers and all were on. I had a thought and checked the lamp on his side of the bed. No light. That made no sense at all. Three things in one evening just don’t go bad. We plugged and unplugged, and reset the switch on the hair dryer. Still no luck.
We plugged the hair dryer into a socket in the living room. No luck. Gene took a lamp that was working in the living room and plugged it into the bathroom socket. It worked. So we established that the socket was working, but not the hair dryer. But why two lamps and one dryer? He took my lamp to the living room, no luck. I started singing a little chant that popped into my brain from childhood days. “Have you seen the ghost of Tom…” I have no idea where I learned that creepy little tune but I probably learned it in grade school. It certainly wasn’t at home as we didn’t have TV and listened to very little radio. I remember singing it as a kid, slowly, over and over, with strong emphasis on each word whenever it seemed to fit a “needed situation”! Tonight was one of those “needed situations” even though Gene could see no connection!
I noticed that the alarm clock on my night stand and the little fan on his worked. That meant both of the sockets were live, just not the lamps. Gene suggested I change the light bulb in my lamp again. Much to my surprise it worked. How unlikely is it to have two blown out bulbs. One problem solved.
What works for one lamp might work for the second, right? Wrong. Replacing the bulb in his lamp didn’t help. I looked behind his night stand and the lamp was unplugged. Now, how in the world did that happen? We have no children in the house and I certainly didn’t do it. It had to be the ghost of Tom! Gene informed me his lamp hasn’t worked for a long time. For some reason I hadn’t noticed. Apparently it never got plugged in when we redid the bedroom two years ago. Second problem solved. At least we now have light!
Back to the hair dryer. I plugged and unplugged, push the reset button fifty times and turn it on and off fifty-two times. Nothing. About half hour later we were sitting in the living room and the hair dryer started running. In turning it on and off, I hadn’t turned it off. I have no clue what ailed that opinionated thing but it’s attitude must have been adjusted as it has been working ever since. It had to be that illusive, stupid, Tom ghost with no skin on!
Three problems solved in one evening. That was a good night’s confusion workout.
Out of curiosity, I googled the phrase “Have you seen the ghost of Tom” and actually found the words to the song. It was only four lines long though I remember it as much longer. I had forgotten the last two lines.
This reminded me of another song we sang as kids, “Guess I’ll Go Eat Worms”. I found it on google also. When we were sent to the garden to work or shooed out of the house, we would sing this crazy little song.
I’m curious how many of the rest of you will admit to singing these goofy little songs?
