It Runs in the Family

I wish I could say I only have one eccentric relative. But then I’d be lying.

When I was in college, I never understood why my friends wanted to spend holidays at my house with my family. I’m still not sure why they’d want to willingly submit to hours of inappropriate comments, jokes and stories, but there you go. They do.

I was going to talk about one particular uncle. Then I realized everyone in my family has this…issue? Even me. We’re all expert mechanics, carpenters, writers, cooks, parents, painters, plumbers, drivers, politicians, ministers, etc. You get the idea. In other words, we’re good at bullshitting (Pardon my French).

For instance, I participated in a quiz night with my sister, brother, his wife, her father and friend. One of the questions was “What all female group was singer Florence Ballard a part of?” I was thinking along the lines of Martha and the Vandellas (It’s the Supremes in case you didn’t know). My brother says, with complete authority, “Florence and the Nightingales!” And he was serious. If anyone had come up to him and asked him how he knew, he probably would have had a complete story to go along with his guess. And it was a guess. A wrong guess, but a hilarious one.

That’s the thing about my family. We love to laugh at life, at ourselves, at each other. We can also tell a complete falsehood with a straight face. It’s a skill we’ve had to learn in order to survive with each other.

Mom: “Where’s the baby?”
My brother: “I left him at daycare. I was too tired to pick him up.” (When the baby is in his hands.)

See? This is my family. So for me to point out one relative who’s eccentric would be impossible. We’re all a little weird and crazy. And people like us for it. Which kind of makes me wonder who the weird ones really are.