A tale of Grandpa

Today I thought I would share a short story I heard many times as a child. My mother was particularly amused by it. The story involved her father and his brother Beecher. The story goes something like this :

Now,when I was a young girl my father was prone to drinking just a little too much. He would go off with his brother,among others, and indulge. It wasn't unusual for him to not come home until late into the night. This was at a time when we didn't have street lights or sidewalks. A favorite shortcut home from his brothers house was through the cemetery. Many people did this all the time. Another fellow named Alex Sunberg was also a noted drinker. He was a tall thin man and had very bony fingers. Well Alex had been taking this same shortcut and had stumbled into a freshly dug grave that was being readied for the next day. Because of the condition he was in he was unable to climb out. Horace,your Grand father,and his brother Beecher walked right past this same spot. Alex reached up with that bony hand of his and said,"help me outta here" Grandfather and his brother ran all the rest of the way home. They rushed into the kitchen all out of breath and there eyes popping out !
The next day the men working at the cemetery found Alex still in the grave sound asleep. They woke him up and he told the story. Of course the word got spread around and the story told. Your Grand father got teased for years about that one.
I'm sure that this is a true story. My Mom will still tell it occasionally . I never knew my Grandfather Horace Bennett he passed before I was born. I've heard many a tale involving him drinking and his exploits. Not all of them are good. But in the words of the immortal Walter Cronkite, " that's the way it was ."