One of the greatest aspects of my family is that no matter what has happened to us in our lives, we have been able to laugh.\u00a0 This is a priceless gift\u00a0 and I consider myself blessed to receive it.\u00a0 We\u2019ve never really been either rich or poor.\u00a0 It has been (at least for as long as I can remember) a typical middle-class life, with its occasional ups and downs.\u00a0 My brother and three sisters, however, have been around a lot longer than I have, so they are more likely to tell you the stories of hand-me-downs and sharing one bedroom.\u00a0 For myself, I sometimes see my part in the family like a role in a television show.\u00a0 We have quite a cast of characters, many of whom I will introduce to you as we move along, haphazardly, through the retelling of some of the more entertaining moments in our family history.<\/p>\n
Growing up in Westchester County, New York in the \u201870\u2019s and early \u201880\u2019s was an experience that I didn\u2019t really appreciate until I got a little older and was thrown into a whole new world called Tucson, Arizona.\u00a0 We left New York in 1983, but the memories of the days growing up on the East Coast have not faded.<\/p>\n
While we still lived in NY, my mom would take us us to a place called \u201cThe Bazaar Mall”\u00a0 in Mount Kisco to window shop and get us out of the house for a few hours.\u00a0 We would hardly ever buy anything while we were there as my mom would explain in her strong,\u00a0 New York accent,<\/p>\n
\u201cOoo, I nevah buy nuthin\u2019 in them mall staws,\u00a0 dey raise awll dere prices to covah deyah ovah-head.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So, mostly we would browse.\u00a0 Besides, if we needed to get clothes or anything like that, my mother knew of about a hundred different places where we could get what we needed for a lot less:<\/p>\n
\u201cHeeah, try this on.\u00a0 For three dollahs ya can\u2019t go wrong.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So, we were in the Bazaar one chilly afternoon in late October because they had one of these miniature circus exhibits going on.\u00a0 It was one of those deals where there were all these little figures carved out of wood to about the size of an average pinkie finger and some of them were rigged up to move around a little. There was a guy in the lion\u2019s cage with a chair and bull-whip, and there were a couple of elephants that would rear up on their hind legs.\u00a0 It was basically your typical circus scene, carved out of wood, and very small.<\/p>\n
Anyway, we went and looked at this thing for awhile and then we did some window shopping and were on our way out of the mall when we passed by a TV and electronics store.\u00a0 As we walked past the display window, one of the television sets caught my mother\u2019s attention:<\/p>\n
\u201cOoo, look! Deyah showin\u2019 some kind of movie deyah.\u201d, she said as she stopped in front of the store\u2019s window. \u201cLook, dohse people ah goin\u2019 through a dawah way deyah. But I can\u2019t see wheyah deyah goin\u2019\u201d, as she squinted at the screen. \u201cWhat an odd movie dis is.\u00a0 Oh, look deyah\u2019s a man in deyah!\u201d, and as she said this she pointed and waved at the screen, at which time the man on the television pointed and waved back to her. \u201cOoo, he waved at me, didyas see dat? Who is dat strange man?\u00a0 He must want us to come in deyah and buy sometin’.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
By this point my sister Annie and I could not control our laughter anymore, and we\u00a0 both exclaimed in unison,<\/p>\n
\u201cMom, that\u2019s you!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
My mother had been watching herself and the action around us on a TV that was hooked up to a video-camera pointed directly out of the window we were standing in front of.\u00a0 That \u201cstrange man\u201d she saw waving and pointing at us was her!\u00a0 After a few more minutes of hysterics, my mother, true to form, replied,<\/p>\n
\u201cOoo, it must be this jacket. It makes me look like a man.\u00a0 I\u2019m throwin\u2019 it out as soon as we get home!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And she did.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the greatest aspects of my family is that no matter what has happened to us in our lives, we have been able to laugh.\u00a0 This is a priceless gift\u00a0 and I consider myself blessed to receive it.\u00a0 We\u2019ve … Continue reading