Old Husband Story…Funny Till Unexpected Twist
This weekend, a new detail emerged about a familiar, old, funny family story. This story is not about my husband. It’s about my mom’s first husband–in other words, Dad. I now realize that no matter how familiar and amusing, stories can take unexpected turns even decades after the fact.
My father and mother were divorced in the 1970’s. The divorce was not tramatic for me or my sister due to two factors: we were very young, plus my parents were very smart. They kept the divorce discussions quiet, and they NEVER said a negative word about each other literally to this day. They do tell funny stories about each other (in a respectful way). The one I’m about to share involves the common knowledge that my father, the sweethearted, handsome genius he is, gives notoriously strange gifts–that is when he remembers a birthday or holiday, which happens almost NEVER.
We all love the story about the time my mother was 8 months pregnant with my sister, and received a gift for her birthday from my father (good job). But it was a BANJO (bad job). Yes, that instrument kind of similar to a guitar, which is completely impossible to hold for a pregnant woman, much less play. We always howl with laughter when Mom adds that she’d never expressed even a remote interest in playing an instrument, and really barely even knew what a banjo was. I can just picture her face when she opened this huge box and sees this banjo…then tries to react politely…
Fast forward to yesterday. My sister had lunch with my father over the weekend. He told her that that he got himself a BANJO. I literally nearly fell over backward with laughter. Not a BANJO again!
THEN…Dad told my sister he’d gotten our mother a banjo a long time ago for a gift. (He obviously has no idea how many times we’ve heard the story…) Except that my sister had never heard Dad’s version of the story. Me neither. Never even thought to ask. Pretty cut and dry–odd, random gift.
Dad explained to my sister that he’d learned to play the guitar in college and picked it back up when I was little (and Mom was pregnant with my sister). He continued, “So, I got your Mom that banjo for her birthday. I thought playing music might be something fun we could do together.”
This one sure made me think twice as I reached for the tissues. I hope he has fun learning to play his new banjo. (Please note: Both he and my mother are very happily remarried, each for about 20 years now. That makes this story a little less sniffly.)
June 3rd, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Thanks for stopping by my site! Per your question, are you kidding me? Of COURSE he hasn’t installed the toilets! I mean, we have only had them three days, that means, in man-time, he’s got about 2 years, 3 months and 27 days left before it’s at the top of the to-do list!!
Which is why I’m bribing someone else to do it.