I know a number of funny stories which aren't mine to tell, but were told to me, and they made me laugh. I thought today if you're in the mood for a chuckle, this might be the time to share a few of the stories. (They all involve members of my immediate or extended family...)
My brother has lived in his neighborhood for over 20 years. He has a neighbor who is a single foster mom, and she has a big yard. He doesn't particularly like her but he has a soft spot for her kids. He noticed a few years ago that she had trouble keeping her grass cut, so he started just mowing it for her, when she was at work. He had been doing that for several years when he ran into her at a neighborhood party. She was telling several guys how her grass never needed mowing! "I never have to mow it!" she crowed. "I lucked out and got this amazing grass that never needs mowing." She went on and on. One of the guys standing around her finally laughed and said uh, nope, Bruce mows it for you. She didn't go find Bruce or thank him or say a word, just turned and walked off. (Bruce doesn't mow her lawn any more, BTW, she had to hire someone...)
One of my cousins, who grew up in Kentucky, went to a rather exclusive private girls' college. Her first week there she was terribly homesick -- 17 years old, never been away from home before. She wandered into a common room in her dormitory and noticed the TV was on and nobody was watching it. She started flipping through channels and found Hee Haw, a show her dad always watched but she had never really liked. As soon as she heard the music she burst into tears.
When my dad was in the Army, stationed in Germany, he worked a lot of hours and didn't have a lot of free time for his favorite hobby, reading. So he volunteered to clean the latrine before inspections. All the other guys thought he was crazy to volunteer for that duty. So before inspections he go in there and lock the door, and quickly clean the latrine well enough to pass inspection. (He had a strong stomach and nothing bothered him.) He then kept the door locked and sat down and read his book. If someone knocked on the door he hollered "I'M NOT DONE CLEANING HERE JUST GO SOMEPLACE ELSE!"
Dad and my brother in the early 1980's
My grandfather (Bob Hasty) was a great fan of the Atlanta Zoo. He started taking us there when we were quite small. He always went to the monkey house first. That way, if we got tired, we still got to visit the monkeys. (Guess what was his favorite place at the zoo?!)
My great aunt Hazel was naughty once, as a small girl, and she was punished by being locked up in an outbuilding where there were watermelons stored -- this would've been around 1900. She found a crowbar or something and ruined every melon in the building.
Another time, a little boy came to school dirty and stinky and kept wearing the same shirt each day, until she poured an inkwell down his shirt. "He won't wear that shirt tomorrow!" was her response when the teacher asked why she did that.
Hazel's brothers were equally into pranks. One day they asked their dad if they could go to a party and he said no. They waited until he was asleep, tied him in his bed, took the car keys and went to the party.
My grandmother was equally a prankster. This is from Mom's recollections:
Mother was a bit of a mischief, often played jokes on people, mostly family. We all ate together at our big dining room table. Sometimes, when we had company, she’d start passing serving dishes around the table, never putting them down. The trick was to see how many times a polite guest would continue to pass the bowl of beans around. Of course we kids would have the giggles.
One of her standards was to slip a hair brush down in the guest bed so that feet would encounter the brush and come flying out of bed.
above, the Butler family around 1918 -- Hazel is standing in the back, second from the right, next to my grandmother Wilma (with the very curly bobbed hair!)
I will share more of these as I think of them...
