Family Stories

The other night, Chelle and I were running around doing errands. We were starving so we stopped and picked up a fully cooked, in-a-box, tender, moist chicken from the local grocery store. But we weren't on our way home, so we had no choice but to begin devouring it right there in the car as we drove. We each took a greasy, juicy leg. Good stuff.

We dropped off some pictures at my aunt's house, and then, because she lives close to my parents, decided to drive over and invite ourselves in so we could finish eating our chicken at a table. My parents were home and delighted to let us use their table, even added a few things to the dinner options and joined us.

Afterwards, we sat and just chatted for quite a while. We got talking about keeping personal histories, and my dad, who sometimes tends to not think very highly of himself, says his life was boring. Nothing worth keeping a history about. My mother disagrees with him and begins to remind him of some of the more noteworthy events from his past. And because they are married, my mother starts showing up in these stories before long. And can I just say, my parents should both be dead!

Well, really, it's my dad who should be dead. He was raised on a farm, which usually invites a certain level of, well, let's just call it "make-shift entertainment". So some of his stories were the results of his own "creativity", while others were just mere happenstance. He never should have made it long enough to marry my mom. But somehow he did. So the stories just carried over into their married life...and its a wonder they're here at all.

I thought to myself, "These stories would make a great, unbelievable movie." Then I thought, "Hey better yet, I'll blog about them!"

So over the next several weeks, I'll be sharing stories from a series I have entitled "My Dad Should Be Dead" followed intermittently with stories from the series "My Parents Should Be Dead."

I hope you enjoy them as much as we did. But if not, no worries. At least some of my Dad's personal history will be written down.

- Chel