Hold the Crunch

(re-run)

Jim’s job was to put the crunch in Jif, the new peanut butter to rival Skippy. One machine chopped the peanuts into slivers, and another machine used pistons to plug the slivers into the creamy product. Jim also had to taste-test peanut butter that had been sitting on a shelf for three months in 100 degree heat.

Jim had earned his degree in chemical engineering. He had taken a job with Proctor and Gamble in Cincinnati, but was this really what he wanted to be doing?
The verdict? Rancid.
Jim quit his job, but not before they offered him a transfer to work on cookie mixes.
“No thanks,” he said. “I’m going back to school to get my masters’ degree.”
Jim returned to Pittsburgh and enrolled in school. Since he loved to sing, he joined a group called the Musi-cantors. That’s where he met Dottie. They dated for five years. Jim didn’t have much money since he was a student.
The following New Year’s Eve, Jim and Dottie went to a party at one of his professor’s houses. Just before midnight the toilet overflowed, and the hostess went upstairs to deal with it. Jim and Dottie went upstairs, too, only Jim led Dottie to a closet since she wanted a quiet place to call her mother and wish her a happy new year. They dragged the bedroom phone into the closet and shut the door.
When Dottie hung up the phone Jim asked her to marry him.
“Yes!” she said.
The hostess, who had finished with the toilet, overheard them and ran downstairs to tell the others. When Jim and Dottie came down the stairs, they met a receiving line of well-wishers congratulating them on their engagement.
Jim saved up and got an engagement ring for Dottie after he graduated and got a real job as a chemical engineer.
The two got married two Aprils later, more than a year after the NYE party.

Couldda Wouldda Didda
Jim and Dottie have been married 62 years and are still singing.

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