People sometimes wonder where I got my sense of humour from.
Actually, people sometimes just wonder about me in general. Oh well.
I’m going to come right and say it’s all my parents’ fault.
Mostly my dad’s to be honest. He’s 77
years old this year, going on twelve. He’ll still deny stealing a fresh baked
cookie, even when he has chocolate on his face and crumbs on his shirt. That’s
consistency!
From my Mom, I received the gift of appreciating the humour
in family situations. Many a day went by when I’d find Mom sitting in the
kitchen or living room, giggling quietly to herself because the dog wore his
food bowl as a hat or the cat tried to catch a butterfly through a screen
window. Maybe it was just from watching us kids get ready for school.
I think
it was also because Mom was a nurse for 35 years – a very good nurse – and we
all know that anyone in the medical field has a pretty good sense of humour in
any case. They have to have a sense of the absurd, just to get through their
day sometimes.
Even with all that, it was always easy to laugh at our
house. My Dad was exceptional at finding ways to have fun and tease the rest of
the family at any moment. One of the best pranks he pulled was on a sunny
winter day. We had received about three feet of snow over the previous two
weeks and Dad decided it was a smart thing to shovel off the roof of the house.
Not the sidewalk, the roof. I don’t know why either.
Beautiful blue sky and Dad had already finished the lower
roof at the back of the house. Mom had sent me out to watch and yell when – not
if - Dad fell off the roof. Anyway, each
push of the shovel sent a veritable avalanche of snow onto the sidewalk that
went along the front of the family room window. After the second push, Dad
called down to me and says, “Get your Mom and sister out here”.
“Why?” I asked. “Don’t ask why,” he said “just get them out
here under this line I’m pushing.”
“How am I going to do
that?” I said. “Think of something!” he said. That was a lot of help.
So I went into the kitchen where Mom and Sis were baking up
a storm. Racking my brains (and having a hard time of it, due to the heavenly
smells of fresh cookies and cakes), I acted all excited and said there was a
really cool plane flying around the neighbourhood and they really, REALLY have
to see it! It will only take a second, honest!
So the ladies came out the front door, wiping their hands on
their aprons. I told them to walk in front of the family room window and I ran
out to the street to let them know when ‘the plane’ would arrive over the
house. I knew I had to be out of the
avalanche zone as well as the Zone of Death my sister would encompass after
this little bit of fun. I told them to move a little to the right, just a bit
more, perfect!
“Where is it? It’s cold out here” my sister yelled to me.
“Look up now – here it comes!” I answered, just as Dad pushed half the snow
that was on the roof on top of them.
It was perfect.
Just as they looked straight up, the snow hit them. The
screams could be heard blocks away. Thank goodness the neighbours knew us well
enough to ignore the shrieks. With a wringing of hands and flapping of shirt
collars, Mom and Sis ran back into the house.
Between the two of us, Dad and I must have laughed for
fifteen minutes straight. It didn't matter that we might be having dog food for
dinner while the rest of the family had steak. It was a masterful prank that
will go down in the Family history.
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