I have a friend that tells lies on a frequent basis. I have known her for 40 years or so and she has never changed. She doesn't lie about big things; its the little ones and it has baffled me all these years. When I called her on it, she just continues on as though nothing had happened. She came from a good family - mom a teacher, dad did something for the school board - never could figure out why she would lie when it wasn't necessary.
A good example of this was what happened to us one Saturday night. I had a VW bug and every Friday and Saturday night, my friend and I went out dancing. Both dances were just slightly out of town which required a vehicle to get there. My mom had need of the car so we weren't sure if we could go this one particular weekend. Her dad also had a VW bug; older but the same colour as mine. She asked him if we could "borrow" it for the night (she didn't drive). He called me to ask me what are plans were and I told him. He ok'd the use of his car as long as we were careful and I promised that I would be responsible for it.
We arrived that night at the local hall and I parked, as usual, under a street light so that the car was visible. In the hall we went and danced our hearts out. Little did we know that some of the guys that we knew decided to pull a prank on us and, of course, they would pick the night we had "borrowed" a car. (Turns out they didn't realize it wasn't mine). They pulled the spark plugs off so that at the end of the night, when I went to start the car it wouldn't start. My friend started freaking out, blaming me for breaking her dads car and he'd never forgive her and on and on. I told her to calm down and it wasn't anything that I did. I just drove the car and parked it.
Everyone was leaving and I was worried that we'd be stuck in the middle of nowhere with no help in sight. (No cell phone then). Finally, some guys came from around the corner of the hall to ask if we were having problems. I explained to them that I couldn't get the car to start. So we pushed the car and tried to start it by releasing the clutch - nothing. Finally someone came with their car and tried pushing us to no avail. Finally, someone looked under the hood and ta da....oh, gee, your spark plugs came undone. Put them back on and low and behold the car started. Talk about relief and hoping that my friends dad never found out. Took the car back and mom picked me up at my friends place.
Next morning I get this call and again, my friend is frantic! Seems that the pushing of the car "broke" some tail pipes and it was going to cost a "fortune" to fix. She was talking a mile a minute and I figured knowing her, she'd concoct a tale that would be hard to believe and we'd never be able to borrow the car again if required. So, like a trooper, I went over to her place, (only after I ascertained that she wasn't going to be home) I wanted to talk to her dad alone. I found her dad in the garage and asked to speak with him. I told him exactly what had happened. Needless to day, she had told a completely different story - why I have no idea since we didn't do anything wrong. He accepted my explanation and said he would try to find "used" tail pipes for the car. I think it cost me $20 or so but not the "hundreds" that she had originally quoted. I asked her why she lied to her dad when we didn't have to and quite frankly, I don't even recall her response. (The next weekend the guys "confessed" as to what they had done and apologized for screwing things up for us stating that they didn't know it wasn't my car).
My mom knew what happened the minute she picked me up the night before.
The bottom line is that her parents knew her proclivity to lie but I don't know if they ever actually did anything about it. I also figured out that her parents were always talking about her older sister who was an over-achiever, so I kinda gathered it was my friends only way to gain attention. I'm guessing.....
Anyway, she is a good person other than that. She's been married for over 35 years and her hubby occasionally challenges her "stories" but I guess has accepted that its just part of who she is. She's give the shirt of her back for you as a friend, so its something that, over the years, I just accept and whenever we Skype each other, I just take what she says with a grain of salt. I have to confess that our friendship for the most part has been long distance since we graduated high school, so it makes things more tolerable...
Funny how a conversation on lying brought back that memory. Sigh
Dixie
