John Mast Stories

Gotta pass on several good John Mast stories while they're fresh on my mind--from a family gathering last night, full of lots of good stories.

John is a regular customer at the Dutch Kitchen, and loves to grouse about the practice of tipping. A while back, when he arrived, he told the hostess seating the guests that he would like to sit in the "no tipping" section.

"Follow me," she said crisply and led the way while John followed--all the way to the back, in front of the men's restroom.

"Here it is," she said. "And you can stay as long as you want."

It's probably a good sign that the story made its rounds with John doing the telling.

******************

John once went to the train station early on a very cold morning to meet someone. From his tractor seat, he saw a rabbit huddling beside the road out of the wind next to a post. He must have made a mental note of its whereabouts.

After having picked up his passenger in town, he headed back out to the country, and asked his guest along the way if he smelled a rabbit. The passenger wasn't sure that he did, but John declared that he had gotten a whiff of rabbit. As they drove along, the smell got stronger and stronger, till they reached the post where John was pretty sure the rabbit would still be huddled. It was, and John pointed it out as the likely source of all the rabbit smells he was picking up. Predictably, the smell faded as they got farther away from the sheltering post.

*******************

Locals know John Mast as the tall retired Old Order Amish bishop of the Partridge area church. He is past 90, and his hearing and eyesight are failing, but he can still tell a good story and is a community treasure for that reason--and many others.