Since I can't come up with anything else I'm picking on my wife this week.

And, since this is something I never do in Open Notebook, I figure I can get away with it as well.
We will see.

If worse comes to worse I think I can out-run Mrs. Gennings. At least if I'm in my car and she is on foot.

At any rate, I'm picking on her because not too long ago she told me a funny story.

Actually it's more like she shared an observation with me.

It happened like this: one day we were out for a drive in the countryside, northwest of Alliston. The Pontiac Overland crested a hill and Mrs. Gennings pointed out the window.

"You see those big long things in the field?" she said. "When I first moved up here I thought they were some type of airplane."

Now Mrs. Gennings no sooner finished her sentence and I was busting a gut with laughter.

I guffawed too.

And, in all honesty, there might have been a snort or two.

"Airplanes!" I said. "Are you pulling my leg?"

Mrs. Gennings was referring to those mobile irrigation devices that some farmers use on their fields.

"Yeah - don't laugh at me," she said. "They kind of look like the old biplane frames - sort of like what the Wright Brothers flew with."

I drove along in silence for a bit.

"Well if they were planes they'd be the same size as small jetliners in terms of wingspan. Don't you think you'd have seen them before moving up here?" I asked after a while.

Mrs. Gennings just shook her head.

"I thought maybe they were some type of special farm plane so I wouldn't have seen them in the city. I know they're not planes now. At least I think they're not. So what are they?"

I proceeded to tell her they were irrigation sprinkler systems but I chuckled pretty hard so I don't know if she got everything I was saying.

Mrs. Gennings was raised in Scarberia - I mean Scarborough - and Ajax so I guess I should cut her some slack.

Still, every so often she lets her "City" show. For example, she thought a Turkey Shoot was actually where people went and shot turkeys. And on another occasion she noted that chocolate milk is available only from brown cows.

Okay, I made that last one up but I think it adds to this week's story.

In all fairness I let my country bumpkiness show from time-to-time too.

Case in point: Until a month or so ago I'd never been on the TTC.

"What do you do when you want to go downtown?" Mrs. Gennings asked when she was still The Lady Friend, after learning of my lack of TTC savvy.

"I drive down and pay to park," I said.

And so, after a day at the Royal Ontario Museum recently, we used the TTC to get down to the Eaton Centre, where we were having dinner with friends. Mrs. Gennings held my hand like a little boy as we descended underground.

"Now put your token in the slot..." she told me as we entered the station.

She also finds it amusing that I've never been to the Canadian National Exhibition - to which I remind her we were always at our summer place on Georgian Bay.

"You think Father Dearest would head to the city for the Ex? You're nuts," I've told her more than once.

And so we are - the City Slicker and Bumpkin.

Truth be told I like our different backgrounds: makes conversation more interesting.

And besides, another Mr. and Mrs. Gennings were City Slicker and Bumpkin-like and they made out just fine.

You see until the late 1930s my paternal grandmother had never been much north of Eglinton Avenue. But she met Grandpa - another story, they lived on a farm near Mansfield for most of their life and the rest is history.

Yep - I think my Mrs. Gennings and I will do just fine as well.

Now, if I can just figure out how to get one of those irrigation systems airborne.

Betcha that would really get Mrs. G's jaw to drop.

Michael Gennings is a reporter for The Stayner Sun. Feedback is welcome at mgennings@simcoe.com.