Thinking Sideways

Every once in a while you hear a story about a person that finds himself in a difficult and embarrassing situation but still manages to extricate himself from this mess by choosing a wise and perhaps unusual solution.

Years ago, the YMCA in London was on Wellington Street across from a music store called Chapman and Hewett. At this time both men and women shared the YMCA swimming pool. At a given hour a signal would be sounded and the men would clear the pool, as the women would come in for the next scheduled hour. In those days the men swimmers didn't wear bathing suits. It was the "hygienic" policy of the day to swim naked.

Well, this guy was doing laps underwater and didn't hear the buzzer. At that critical moment as he was coming out of the pool the women were already coming into the area.   He grabbed his towel in embarrassment and guess what... he put the towel over his face and casually walked out.   Now that's what I call creative thinking. 

I presume most people would have wrapped the towel around their waists to hide their private parts. However in this case there was no way he wanted to be recognized on the street the next day by any of these women.

On one road trip the Stan Kenton band had to play a venue that was going to be a tight squeeze travel - wise to the next.   The road manager told the band members to take their music off the stands after the concert and take the books with them on the bus. He explained how important this was as the band was really going to be pressed for time.

It was an unusual request and he said their co-operation in this regard would be appreciated. He felt sure the band members would comply. Well, wouldn't you know it; one musician didn't take his book with him and left it on his chair.   He soon discovered this horrible oversight about 50 miles or so towards his new destination.   

The bus driver however did make a stop to gas up and this gave the trombone player a chance to call the Ball Room they had just left.    Sure enough the book was there in the manager's office and they were holding it for him.

There is no way he wanted Kenton to know that he had left (perhaps lost) the entire library at that last location.   He asked the management to forward it to a venue they would be at in ten days. He gave them the address and promised to reimburse them for all their troubles.

That night at the new venue he asked the "bongo" player to loan him the book. The percussionist knew the book by heart and as Kenton called out the tunes the bone player rifled through the borrowed bongo book. It would appear that he was looking for his music.  (The bongo player knew his book by heart and after a while never bothered to pull out any of the tunes.)

Wow, it was a close call.  The trombonist played the book by memory flawlessly and Stan was none the wiser.  That's what I call thinking sideways.

It goes that some times desperate people can come up with desperate solutions.

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