Saturday, October 4, 2008

Sham-wow! or Bust


This past week Brandon, the kids, and I loaded up in the little car and headed up to the State Fair of Texas to spend an afternoon eating random fried foods with my family.  I will try to put into words what occurred with my mostly normal husband that day.

So, Brandon sometimes has insomnia.  And sometimes he ends up watching TV during the wee hours of the mornings.  And sometimes he ends up buying things that he sees during those "Paid Advertising" slots.  (Like the 2-disc set of Country Story Songs.  "Boy Named Sue", anyone?).  

Moving on...

Brandon saw an ad for a Sham-wow! the other night.  Apparently they are magical non-paper paper towels that can pull a 2-liter's worth of spilled coke out of your carpet in no time flat.  If we had just had a few Sham-wows! a couple of weeks ago, we probably would not had any water damage in Hotel Ike at all, according to Brandon.  All of the rain would have just absorbed into the multiple Sham-wows! and we could have squeezed it all into an empty swimming pool somewhere. 

So about an hour or so into our fair day, we are walking around inside one of those buildings that have the booths that sell pots and pans and massage chairs and such, when Brandon says something like "What if they have Sham-wows! at the fair!"  And his eyes light up as if the State Fair of Texas held the Holy Grail.

Not 10 minutes later we are outside and see a older woman walking with two bright yellow rolls of unidentified object over her shoulder.  Unfortunately for the older woman, Brandon also saw her, and correctly identified her recent purchase as the elusive Sham-wow!.  I then witness my normally sane husband sprinting across the street, nearly slide-tackling this poor woman and her companion to find out where, indeed, she had gotten the Sham-Wow!  

After the embarrassing tackling incident and subsequent apology, we headed eagerly to the Embarcadero to see the Sham-Wow! demonstration for ourselves.  Sure enough, a fast talking, fast Sham-wow! rolling young man was Sham-wow!ing the crowd with his fancy Garth-Brooks-microphone and cool 2-liter tricks.  

I thought my embarrassment had peaked with the old-woman-tackling incident.  I was wrong.  So, so wrong.

It really peaked when I heard these words from the Garth Brooks mic: "The next three people who wave their hand in the air will receive not one, but TWO Sham-Wows! for the rock bottom price of $24.99!!

And then I witnessed my hubby wave his hand wildly into the air at Garth-Brooks-guy, while half-swatting another lady's hand down.

I'm beaming with pride even as I type.

Because, you know, only THREE people at the whole entire State Fair of Texas were being offered that 2-for-1 deal.  All those other people we saw walking around the fair that day with two Sham-Wows! must have paid full price for both of them.

Suckers.

Needless to say, if anyone needs to ever borrow not one, but TWO Sham-Wows!, Brandon is the person to call.

And please note the look of sheer amazement on his face:

5 comments:

Katee said...

I feel like that should surprise me. And yet... nothing.

The Driskells said...

Two for the price of one! That's Sham-tastic!
: )

Becky said...

Joe is still mad at me for throwing ours away. I had no idea what they were 2 years ago when I found them still rolled up in the back corner of a closet.

Andrea said...

We went to the fair this week and couldn't help but laugh when we stumbled upon the Sham-Wow booth. People were buying 'em like crazy. Let us know how they've worked out for your fam : )

Anonymous said...

I feel like that should surprise me. And yet... nothing.