Family Secrets

I am about to reveal an idiosyncracy about our family that our children would probably prefer remain obscure. Whenever it occurs, they roll their eyes and groan. Even to this day, as adults, they tend to take it as a confirmation of our diminishing neurological capabilities. Yet - I'll wager that, once they have their own kids, they will behave similarly. They won't be able to help themselves. It's ingrained in their genes.

This is it:

We wave at livestock.
We often verbally greet them as well. And we honk the horn.

I'm sure no one else does this. It's unique to our family. As we approach a herd of cows, we feel we must address them. Can't help it. We are known among the bovine community as "the friendly family." Sometimes we even wave to goats, sheep, or emu. It's hard to catch the eye of a chicken though; they usually miss our greetings.

I make public our oddity to illustrate a point: it is stories and traditions such as this that bond a family.

Animals play a big role in our bonding.

We often claim the strangest-looking beast that we see in a photo, on TV, or in a field is actually named after one or the other of us. For years, I would hide a wallet photo of a gorilla in my better half's suitcase whenever he travelled. As he discovered it between his t-shirts, he could hear me saying, "Here's you!" Then I'd find it in some obscure place after he returned, and I could hear him say the same thing. It would make us smile every time. A teasing testiment to our devotion.

One of our favorite stories to tell involves our son at the Washington Zoo. After discussing how monkeys felt threatened by stares, he of course had to test the theory. How hilarious when the monkey lunged at him through the glass enclosure! The normally unflappable little guy was definitely flapped!

Then there's the time our very young, always compassionate, daughter hoped to restore a very squashed, dried frog back to life by sprinkling some water on it.

We have many -isms that define our family as well. These are the cute variations of speech that our children used when they were little. Things like: "natgume" for napkin, or "app-dushe" for apple juice. An -ism can also be a catch phrase that only our family would understand: like "Shampoo Man" or "I'm not a human being; YOU'RE a human being!" or "it wouldn't let me jump!" (See? you have no idea what I'm talking about, but my kids are no doubt rolling their eyes again.)(I hope they don't get stuck in that position!)

We even have carry-overs from my own childhood. My brother and I tell the story about how we painted my bedroom 'screaming green' one weekend while our parents were out of town. From then on, my dad would just close the door rather than look at it. He also tells how I tortured him by crawling under his bed when he got up to tell our Mom about his nightmare. When he returned, of course, I grabbed his feet and got him upset all over again. I confess, I laugh to this day at the cruel prank.

My dad created many of the -isms that my brother and I remember. We would insist that he show us the undisturbed jar of jam or peanut butter before he dug into it. We'd say, "See it smooth!" Even now, at age 81, he takes great delight when we make that request.

There are many such instances that only our family can appreciate. Such things extend to various kinfolk and close friends. Stories are told by the grandparents that our children will always remember. Gentle teasing is our way of reminding each other that we're cherished. Laughter unites us.

Such are the very threads that weave the fabric of who we are and whom we love. We are creating a priceless quilt.

What fabric makes up your coverlet?