Dinner Guests’ Goodbye at the Door Enters Hour Six; Hosts Sell House Around Them

Marietta, OH — A dinner party goodbye that began at the front door of Glenn and Patrice Hubbel at 9:40 p.m. Saturday entered its sixth hour Sunday, by which point the Hubbels had listed, shown and sold the house around their departing guests.

“Well, we should let you go,” said guest Ron Tuttwiler, 61, who has been holding his car keys since the first “well,” and who said it again 214 times, according to a tally Patrice kept on the back of a Costco receipt.

His wife, Darlene Tuttwiler, 59, holding the same foil-covered casserole dish she arrived with, used hour three to bring up a cousin’s gallbladder, a closed Applebee’s and “one more thing about the timeshare.” Neither guest has removed a coat or crossed the welcome mat.

Realtor Sandy Escrowski said the open house went ahead around them. “Buyers loved the crown molding, and we disclosed the Tuttwilers as a fixture,” she said. “Two families asked if they convey.” The home accepted an offer at 11 a.m., $6,000 over asking.

The new owners, Marcus and Lena Oyelaran, began moving in shortly after noon, with movers tilting a sectional sideways to clear Ron, who stepped aside to say, “Anyway, we’ll get out of your hair.”

“Etiquette says the host may end a goodbye after four hours,” said Hal Wendover, 72, a retired funeral home greeter who serves as volunteer chair of the Ohio Valley Doorway Standards Council. “But nobody has told that to the Tuttwilers.”

The Hubbels have since closed on a condo in Parkersburg. When this reporter left, the Oyelarans were setting out drinks for their housewarming, and Darlene had just started a story with “Oh, before I forget.”