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Wednesday, April 29, 2009

My Family

One of our favorite things to do on Saturday evenings is to watch British Comedies on our local PBS channel. We've done it for years. One of them is My Family. It's a totally disjointed, wild family. And that reminds me of my own. Easily. You see, we grew up in a conservative, quiet, what I thought was "normal" family in southwest Idaho during the 1960s-1980s. We went to church, had tons of family gatherings, and were what I'd call a fairly close-knit family unit. But it has occurred to me throughout the years as I've aged that we had our fair share of fruitcakes in the family (me being just one of the many):

*At least one gay.
*Someone involved in the pornographic industry (I think).
*Many divorced couples.
*Numerous children out of wedlock.
*Catholics marrying Protestants.
*Yankees marrying Southerners.
*More than a few living together while not being married.
*Several with mental illness.
*Lots of drug users.
*An arsonist.
*More than our share of alcoholics.
*Gay haters -- well, they don't like us very well.
*Some did time in jail.
*Power of Pride stickers on cars.
*N.R.A. stickers on cars.
*H.R.C. stickers on cars.
*Gun toters.
*African-American lineage.
*Native American Indian lineage.
*Folks having sex with other family members.
*And even someone who participated in several armed robberies.

Yeah, it's basically just been another typical American family. Full of fun and games. I think we were a little more screwed up than I'd always thought growing up.

10 comments:

WAT said...

Haha. Love your list of family "dysfunction." Yeah, I got so many of those issues within my own brood. No Jews in your clan?! WHAT?! Come to think of it, I don't think we have this either in mine.

Portland sounds lovely. I'd love to visit sometime and show you my undies! WAIT. I mean, would love to be shown AROUND. Yeah! That's it. Mason is adorable by the way.

Anonymous said...

I bet, Lewis, that just about ANY family could draw up a list pretty darn similar to the one you shared here! Makes me think of a quote...
"The only normal people are the one's you don’t know very well." (Alfred Adler)

{HUGS}!!

Anonymous said...

"I think we were a little more screwed up than I'd always thought growing up."

Yes, but you fit right in with that area, trust me.

Greg said...

Wow! What a family! I'm curious about the porn industry thing....

Mark in DE said...

...and that's just the stuff you KNOW about!!

wcs said...

We got My Family here for a while while we got BBC Prime. Lots of laughs... But even that family was much more "normal" than the one I grew up in.

Breenlantern said...

I know it's not really the point of this post, BUT...we LOVE "My Family"

Rick said...

Damn you had me going till the last one. oooh gross.

You look adorable with Mason, Nice way to start the blog.

annie said...

i like bridgeout's comment - ha! hey, what about the prostitutes and those abetting in armed robbery? jeesh, i think we need to include all.

Steven said...

Without all the variety in family, with all the pro's and con's, strengths and weaknesses, we'd all be pretty boring families. I think it only makes us stronger and wiser on many fronts. We have porn lineage on my father's side, too. But only one film that I am aware of. Whew! And he was the director, not a star.