Things that Happen in My Hometown

Things that Happen in My Hometown

I wander over to Fark, and see a headline for a stabbing over gas in East TN.

Curious, I click on the story.

ATHENS, Tenn. (AP) -- Athens police say two men walking to get gas for their empty car started fighting over who should pay for it and ended up in jail, one with minor stab wounds.

Police said both David A. Lundsford of Sweetwater and Roger Gifford of Athens remain in custody pending a court appearance Friday.

A police report shows Lundsford suffered a minor stab wound in the abdomen, apparently inflicted with a pocket knife early Wednesday. A witness told police that she saw Lundsford punching Gifford.

Lundsford told officers that he and Gifford were walking north on Congress Parkway after running out of gas and they started arguing about who should pay when they got to the pump.

Both men are charged with public intoxication.

This happened in my hometown. Just up the road, in fact.

Sometimes, I shake my head at this world we live in, and the fact that the small town I live in is not the same one I grew up in.

But then, I'm not grotesquely naive. This sort of shit happens all the time all over the world, all throughout history. If we weren't stabbing each other over gasoline, we'd find something else to stab each other about. People all over the world, but especially in Athens. We're the stabbingest bunch of people I've ever met. They call us "The Friendly City," and I suppose that's true, if "Friendly" means "Stabbed in the Eye."

But, I digress a bit.

I can't find a lot of fault in the stabber. Gas is expensive. Very expensive. Steven's probably my best friend in the world, and I'd stab him if I thought it was his turn to pay for gas, and he was shirking his responsibility.

And next time is his turn.