How I Sometimes See One's Friends

The following is a vignette that I just shared in an e-mail to a pen pal named Becky concerning an inside joke in my family concerning one's friends, which is one of my oft-told vignettes:

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I will take the time to share with you one of my family's favorite stories.

I don't know if you have ever been jilted by a man but, from own my personal experience, I do not think that it is too unusual that when a person is jilted (as I was by my ex) that he or she wants to find someone else very soon to date and even to marry to show the world that "they are okay".

After my ex, Mernell, was jilted by her second husband, she then moved to Columbia, her saying that she needed to get away from two ex-husbands in Hannibal. A few months after her move, Mernell came up to Hannibal one Sunday and she and I and our two children, Johnathan (age 13) and Holly (age 9) were all gathered around the table in my kitchen and Mernell was bragging to me about going out to a bar with some friends that previous Saturday night in Columbia.

Sounding astonished, I told Mernell, "That's hard to believe."

Mernell excitedly asked, "What's that?"

I calmly replied, "That you've got friends," causing Johnathan and Holly to laugh very hard.

Now, one would think that that story would end right there, Becky. But a month or so later, all four of us were actually gathered around that same table once again in my kitchen and Mernell was once again bragging to me about going out with some friends in Columbia a night or two earlier. And once again, I feigned my astonishment when I commented to Mernell, "That's hard to believe." And once again, Mernell breathlessly asked me, "What's that?"

But this time, Johnathan and Holly chimed in, "That you've got friends!!" causing three of us to laugh. And I think that even Mernell was amused somewhat.

That comment about 'having friends' became an inside joke in my family, causing Holly to sometimes tell me, after she made a comment about her friends, "Don't say it, Dad!"

One experience in that regard that always amuses me when I think about it is when Holly was about 15 years old and my parents came up to see Holly in a spring dance recital at the Middle School and, after it was over, Holly came out in the hallway to visit with me and my parents (still wearing her last dance outfit).

Holly then told us, "Well, I'm going to go backstage and say "Bye" to my friends and then I'll be out to the car."

Holly (who is not very tall) and I then looked at each other for a few seconds and Holly had a look of anticipation on her face as if she had realized that she had just lobbed me a big, fat softball to swing at. And Holly could probably see the look on my face as if I was trying to see just how far I could hit that softball.

I then turned away from Holly slightly, took a deep breath, released it and I then told Holly, "Well, I guess that shouldn't take TOO long."

Holly then turned away from me slightly and had a HUGE smile on her face (showing all of her teeth) and she told me, "You're such a jerk!" causing me to laugh very hard.