My Favorite Joke

 

 
My Favorite joke, ever.  Before I get to the joke, it's important that you know what a Co-op is.  In MN and WI many local farmers would band together and create customer owned co-ops (cooperatives) to provide goods they needed and get their products to market.  Instead of paying a middle man or retailer high mark-ups, these were farmer owned stores whose profit margins were kept low enough to just pay their employees.  Everyone benefitted.

These stores would carry everything from farm implements to produce.  It was the quintessential "General Store" of the old West.  In Midwest farm country.

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Ollie and Sven are old friends.  They came over on the boat together.  Like all good friends, they sometimes go through periods that are difficult and may not even speak to each other for a while.

So Sven and Ollie who haven't been speaking to each other for who knows how long and can't even remember why, bump into each other comin out of Church on Ash Wednesday.  Seein as how dey’re in church and all, dey decide to break the silence and say a few words.  Eventually, it gets round to the reason why dey're dere.

So Ollie says to Sven, "So Sven, waddaya gonna be givin up fer Lent?"

"Wellll ya know Ollie, I Bin tinkin about givin up de cigarettes."

"Oh, I don't know Sven.  40 Days is a long time and I know how you are wit de cigarettes.  That's gonna be real hard."

"Wellll Ollie, I be givin it my best shot.  Wadda you givin up fer Lent?"

"Well Sven, I bin tinkin about givin up de sex."

Oh, I don't know Ollie.  40 Days is a long time and I know how you are with de sex.  That's gonna be real hard."

"Well Sven, I be givin it my best shot."

So, they part ways and since things was still a bit uncomfortable between them, they hadn't fallen back into their old constant companionship of late.  And, on Good Friday here they are, running into each other coming out of church.  Eventually, it comes around to the reason why dey're dere.


"So, Sven.  How you doin on de cigarettes?"

"Ollie, I bin doin real goot.  I haven't had one since I talk to you lass."

"Sven, that goot, real goot.  Goot for you, to do so well on de cigarettes."  And Ollie turns to walk away.

"Ollie wait.  How you doin on de sex?"

"Well Sven, I was doin' real goot.  Real goot fer a long time. In fact I thought I had it licked.  And then one day, dere she was, just a bendin' over the potatoes.  And by golly, I just had to have her right dere."

"Oh, Ollie, dat's too bad.  You know, I tink dey can kick you outta da church fer dat."
 
"Wellll, I don't know if they be kickin' us outta da church. But dey sure by golly kicked us outta da Co-op!"


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FYI, I heard that joke for the first time, Nov. 10, 1975, sitting in the college bar in Superior Wisconsin.  I remember, because when I woke the next morning, the news of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald was out and it stuck with me, that I'd been sitting in a bar whooping it up while those men were dying.  I'll never forget that. 

-- Much Love