Barry County, Missouri - Just Pull The Chain Uncle Zeke and  Aunt  Liney  
"Just  Pull  The Chain" 

Submitted by <mailto:labrat@cybermesa.com>Sylvia Stevens

Uncle Zeke was Ezekiel ELLIS, the son of Benjamin Abbott ELLIS  and  his
wife, "Aunt Liney" was Harriet Emmaline CALTON ELLIS. I have pictures of
them somewhere. They lived in Monett Missouri having come from Tennessee
and Alabama. Liney was hard of  hearing  and  Zeke  and  she  were  very
"countrified" and unsophisticated. There is  a  family  story  of  Zeke,
having been invited to a friend's  home  who  had  electricity.  He  was
'caught short' during the visit and had to visit the  restroom.  He  was
told "To turn the bathroom light on, just pull the chain." He apparently
went in and did so. Conversation went on without him for  a  while,  but
eventually the people  noticed  that  Zeke  had  not  emerged  from  the
bathroom for quite some time!

Finally the owner of the home investigated and found Zeke, still in  the
room, muttering and cussing under his breath.  Subsequent  investigation
found that Ezekiel ELLIS had never before SEEN a pull chain  type  light
and he was trying to turn it off by pushing  the  chain  back  INTO  the
fixture! Quite reasonably, he had figured that if you pull the chain  to
turn it on, you had to push it back to turn the light off.

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