I was sitting next to my dad in the kitchen Sunday afternoon. He was playing solitaire while watching TV and I was reading the paper.
"BANG!!" my dad suddenly yelled.
I didn't jump. Instead, I looked at him and said, "Geez, you blew up?" and we both laughed hysterically. The kind of laughter that puts tears in your eyes and leaves you gasping for breath. It was perfect.
I guess this scene needs some sort of explanation. See, my family is weird.
We all get along great. All of us kids respect our parents, and we enjoy spending time with each other. Even as we went through our teenage years, we never really sucommed fully to that typical teenage attitude that parents are lame and that spending time with your family sucks. It's sad that those facts make us sort of weird in today's world, but it just seems that most families I know don't sail along as smoothly as ours does. And I think our "success" has something to do with our silliness. And the silliness has a lot to do with our dad (and mom's patience and tolerance level).
The scene from above was very typical growing up, only it went a little differently... Usually we'd all be sitting together watching a movie, and during a really intense part while we were all quiet, holding our breath, leaning towards the TV in anticipation for what was to come... "BANG!!!" We'd all jump, utter little screams... and then glare at Dad, who'd say, "Geez, I blew up," and then laugh at us.
Another favorite and sort of weird trick that Dad would like to pull was when we were all at home and Mom was out, say, at the store or something like that. When he'd see her car pull into the driveway, he'd say to us all, "Quick! Mom's back! Pretend you're asleep!" And then we'd all try and pretend we were asleep, which was sometimes pretty hard because someone would giggle and giggles are contagious. The really weird part about this "trick" was that Dad would say it no matter what room you were in... So we could be in the kitchen, all pretending we were asleep with our heads down on the table. How ridiculous is that!
I didn't realize how strange some of our tricks, traditions, jokes... whatever you'd call them are, until recently. Now that I'm living with Alex, I find myself saying some of the things my parents said that seemed so normal growing up, and I get the strangest looks and responses from him. For example, if we passed a place where someone famous or someone we knew supposedly lived or worked inside, Dad used to shout "Hey (person that's supposedly inside)! Stick your feet out the window!" I never thought about how strange that was until I said it in front of Alex and he looked at me like I had three heads. I ended up going home and asking my dad how that expression came to be, and he (after he stopped laughing) said that when he was in elementary school, the kids from the other school got out earlier than they did, and as they passed the school, they'd, for some reason, yell to kids inside to stick their feet out the window. He thought it was funny, and continued to use the expression as he grew up. No wonder Alex thought I was strange.
Another time, Alex and I were at my parent's house and Dad started to tell a story about how when they were at an amusement park recently, David, my 17 year old brother, would get on roller coasters alone and scream wildly at the unscary parts, like when they first started to leave the station. Dad and Mom and I were in hysterics while he told this story. Afterwards, when I was wiping the tears from my eyes, I looked at Alex who looked slightly shocked. I guess most normal families just don't get that silly.
I'm so glad mine does. I wouldn't want my family any other way. I really enjoy time spent with my family and I've got so many great memories of laughter and silliness and love. I hope that I can raise a family with the same attitudes and feelings. I hope my kids think I'm weird and enjoy being with the family and have no doubt that they're loved immensely.
Thanks, Wham and Pa!
