Friday Question

When you were in high school did you eat dinner with your family or on your own?

Circa 1970's. Small town in Ohio. Oh, yes, the family ate dinner together with few exceptions. There were, of course, Dad's bowling nights and Mom's hospital volunteer nights...but, basically it was family dinners in the kitchen. And Sunday suppers in the dining room.

But, lest you think this was the Waltons or the Bradys...allow me to regale you with a favorite dinner table memory:

We were a family of four kids (and usually two dogs). Child #1 daughter. Child #2 me. Child #3 daughter. Child #4 you finally got your son, it's time to stop now.

Loving mental torture was, and is, our forte.

While sitting around the table one night, one of us, I can't recall who, decided to tell Child #3 that she was adopted (untrue [and, I know, politically incorrect to use as torture]) At first, she didn't fall for it, but between Mom and Dad remaining silent and the fact that the other two kids chimed in, we eventually had her in tears.

Dad was laughing so hard he was red in the face but he was denying that it was true. He had his arm around Child #3 (his "Bug") and kept reassuring her that she was not adopted. But I guess between his laughing and us not stopping...it just wasn't enough.

Finally, Mom put an end to the entire episode with this simple statement:

"You are not adopted. If we had our pick of kids to adopt, we wouldn't have chosen you."

Yes, it may seem cruel to those of you peeking in to this story, but it made perfect sense to Child #3 who saw the perfect logic in the argument. All was well...

...And they all lived happily ever after.