My dad has a unique way of telling a story. I don't know if he's just developed it since I've been adult (you know, in the last 3 years or so) or if he's done it forever and I just hadn't heard enough other storytellers to appreciate the difference. In any case, Dad tells a story sloooowlllly. In fact, because my family is so loving and patient, the poor guy usually gets peppered with, "Aaaaand?", "And THEN what, Dad?", "Come on, tell it already!" several times before the rather anticlimactic end of his tale.
We were up at Mom & Dad's house for supper the other night, and part of that always involves enjoying some television channels that we don't get at home. (And NO, we don't get TLC, H&G, The Food Network, or anything else worthwhile. The only "cable" channels we get are MTV and VH1, which apparently are so crappy that they give them away, since they are not officially part of our package.) For some reason, Aaron didn't want to watch a cake decorating show, so it was NASCAR, instead.
Now, neither Aaron or I can see the point of any kind of car racing. But the kids kind of like it, at least for about 10 minutes. We happened to be catching the very beginning, so Aaron had the kids listening for, "Gentlemen, start your engines!" which was kind of fun. Then we watched 4 laps or so...with only 396 to go! Seriously, I don't know how the fans don't die of boredom right there in the stands.
Anyway, Aaron made a comment about NASCAR having the biggest fan base of any sport, and then said, "Geez, there's a lot of rednecks out there!"
Leah immediately asked, of course, "What's a redneck?" and I tactfully decided to let the guys take care of that one. Grandpa jumped in to save Daddy, and started with some background:
"Well, it used to be, that when you sat in the balcony of the church you could tell who the farmers were because of their red necks. They were red because they had been out working in the sun..."
and about there Leah broke in - "Okay, I wasn't listening. What did you say?"
And we all laughed, because we, the sensitive, caring family that we are, usually tune out for the history lesson part of Grandpa's stories too.
I don't know what's more disturbing: that now she thinks all farmers are red necks, that she's picked up on our rudeness to the family patriarch, or that she was THAT involved with watching the race.
Like a waterfall in slow motion, Part One
2 years ago
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3 comments:
You know though you will miss all the stories when they are gone. I was like that with my great grandma and now I wish I would have listened to her a lot more and paid attention as now I don't remember a single one. So pay attention to these stories even if you heard them a million times.
With both my own and my wife's father gone, getting some of those stories recorded for posterity is recommended.
As for the TV stations, for only $10 more per month, you can add "digital lifeline" which includes the Science Channel, Nat Geographic channel, History International Channel, golf channel, a bunch of espn channels and more. There are also a variety of cake decorating programs on, I think, WE.
That sounds like Leah... funny!
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