My partner for some little road trips that were our main or sole source of income for a few months at a time sometimes was a married man with two small children. He tended to forget that on the road, his wife didn't. Bobby had very little redeeming social value, he was a helluva pool player, fun to be around, and would give a friend the shirt off his back. There were quite a few not so sterling qualities that don't need mentioning. After a few days or a week on the road I'd coast past Bobby's home in a rural area and let him walk the last little piece back home. His wife had his .38 and 30-30 and knew how to use both of them! Somebody told her where Bobby and I were at one night along with a couple of companions and only a fortuitous flat prevented a shooting. We made good money and had good times but I didn't really need the money anymore and didn't need to get shot.
His wife did eventually shoot Bobby, sorta. He was working offshore and would take most of his week off to make it home just in time to give his wife a small fraction of his paycheck and go again. He had to stay over a few days one trip and for a change came straight home. He had been rebuilding a monster diesel engine around the clock while working the overtime and just fell in bed, grubby clothes and all.
His wife came home and took one look at him and started screaming. "Three days late and broke again I'll bet!" By the time Bobby woke up she had the thirty-eight and was busting caps. As he sailed out the front door she hit the doorframe, heart high! A half inch over and Bobby would have been learning to play a harp or more likely dodging pitchforks. The .38 isn't a real potent round and the 20-30 year old very hard and brittle doorframe shattered but stopped the bullet. Didn't mean Bobby got off scott free, he had some ten or twelve inch long splinters in his ribcage. They couldn't pull them out with pliers so they finally had to take Bobby to the emergency room to have the splinters removed after trying other options for a couple hours. I forget the story they told, something about a nail gun I believe. Almost true, she almost nailed him with it. :grin:
Bobby could accidentally get in more trouble walking the hundred feet to check his roadside rural mailbox than most people could hunt up in a month of Sundays. Most of it seemed like good fun at the time but there were a lot of times we could have found ourselves a little bit dead when I think back on things.
Hu
Great story!
I'm very reluctant to share this story but seeing the support that most of you have given me, I feel I must. Plus it kind of ties in with your story of an angry wife.
I played a guy in league, and he was so upset that I beat him that he challenged me to play after. His wife started telling him that he better not lose that money because they needed it, but he insisted to her that he could beat me.
We play a race to 5 for $100. I win the first set and ask him for the money. He gets upset and says that he's got it and not to worry about it, but I learned my lesson from many years back and insisted on seeing the money. So he tells his wife to show me the money and to pay me. She pulls out an envelope and shows me $500 in hundred dollar bills and gives me one.
We play another set and I win again. His wife is pissed, but gives me the money. He asks me to play again and his wife tells him to quit, but he insists. She's so pissed that she leaves and goes into the bar area. Since she's still in the building, I go ahead and play him another set. This time he wins. We go back and forth winning and losing that same $100 until finally I win two sets in a row and now he owes me another $100. So he asks a friend to go get his wife. His wife comes into the room and I kid you not you could see flames in her eyes!! She was so angry that she reached in her purse gave me another $100, grabed his cue and swung it as hard as she could against the side of the table. That shaft didn't stand a chance...on the first swing! She swung it for a second time and ended up bending the joint somehow! Now the whole cue was worthless! She was crying and they were both screaming at each other. She ran into the bathroom crying and he was so pissed that he walked out the door, got in his car and left her there.
When she came out, a friend told her that her husband had left and so she started to cry some more. I felt horrible at how things went, so I went up to her and gave her all the money back. I also told her to not say anything to her husband about me giving her back the money.
Who knows maybe they pulled a fast one on me, but to me it seemed all too real.
I've won and lost a lot of money gambling, but regardless of how much money I've won, nothing has ever made me feel better than giving that woman that money back.
It didn't really matter, I was pretty strong on my home turf and few that came looking went away happy. 
. I'm sure it's someone I should know, but who is she?