As the mother of 8 kids, my mom ran a tight ship. Every morning we ate a cooked breakfast together at 6:30 am at the table my dad made out of a door. We all were in out uniforms, the kids in Catholic School uniforms and my dad in his 3-piece suit. Dad and kids alike reached into the drawer under the cupboard to get a mom-hand-sewn apron to keep us from spoiling our clothes. (He always looked so great; it was a shock to me to find out that Sears wasn't haute couture.) One April Fools Day my dad came down to breakfast dressed as he always was, minus his pants. My sister and I, the youngest two, whispered to each other "Do you think he knows?" "Should we tell him?" When he finally took off his apron, replaced it in the drawer, went to the front closet, put on his overcoat and hat...the last thing he did before he 'd say "See you in the funny papers," and walk out the door to the bus...we knew we had to act. "Dad, you forgot your pants," we shouted. I think he intended the joke to end there but seeing how important we felt, he let us believe we'd saved him from a terrible embarrassment. He was so grateful that his two girls kept him from walking out without his trousers. "What would I do without you?"
My mom was more straight-forward but her simple and consistent Tom-Foolery taught me the value of keeping it simple. She'd simply look out the front window and say, "Oh my Gosh." And we'd reply "what, what, what is it?" She'd just fill in the blank...a horse on the lawn, it had snowed two feet, old Mrs. Thompson was out front dancing in the street. These simple tricks were easy for us to learn and then play on our older brothers and sisters. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, but teach a girl to pull a prank and you've made her into an entrepreneur for a lifetime.
No comments:
Post a Comment