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A Day In The Life Of An Average American Family (Page 3)
My family and I lived away from South Dakota for a period of around 20 years. Yet every summer we would return for a family vacation/reunion from wherever we were living to visit both my wife's family in Rapid City, and my family in Sioux Falls. When my son Blake was 6 or 7, we made one such trip. We were sitting at Grandma Rachel's house one afternoon and the kids (Sommer & Tara too) were feeling a little bored. They asked what they could do for some fun.
I said that I had a great idea: "Since mom and I both grew up in Sioux Falls, why don't we take a drive around town and we will show you all the special places from when we grew up!" They actually thought it was a good idea, so we all piled in the van and headed out for a little drive around town.
We drove by my old grade school and explained that I used to walk back and forth from grandma's house to go to school, just like Blake was doing at his school. We continued driving by the hospital that Grandma worked for 30+ years and explained that she too walked to work everyday. We drove by my friends house and explained that his father was my basketball coach and he was one of my best friends all the way through high school. We soon drove by the Junior High School where my wife and I met and said "Look at this school...it is where your mom and I met for the very first time!". Shortly after, we drove by the church where my wife and I were married and said "Look at that church, that is where mom and I were married before you were even in existence!".
This went on for some time...pointing out some piece of trivia about one thing or another, when I pulled up and stopped at the stoplight. Above us was a billboard with one of my old teacher's on it. I said "Look at that kids, that's my old teacher running for mayor!". They all looked up in amazement. Just then I looked over at the corner and saw a very scary, shabby looking man standing next to his bicycle, looking as if he had been pushing it across town. He had long stringy, greasy hair with a raggidy unkept beard. He was wearing a long dirty and shaggy overcoat. He was staring at us with a look that reminded me exactly of the photograph of Charles Manson with those deep, disturbing eyes. Under my breath I looked at my wife and said "Look over there...Charlie Manson standing on the street corner".
It was my son, who had been paying particularly close attention the whole drive said in amazement: "Dad...you know everybody in this town!"
Charlie Rides A Bicycle
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My oldest daughter Tara went over to our neighbor’s house one evening to baby-sit. She watched these children regularly. The two oldest were boys about six and eight. The youngest was a girl named Elaine. She was a tiny girl around four years old.
Upon entering the house, Tara noticed Elaine had a deep cut beneath her chin. The cut had been stitched recently and was obviously caused by an accident of some sort. My daughter concerned asked, “Elaine, what happened to your chin?”
The little girl went on to explain “Do you know how when you throw a cat up into the air, that the cat always lands on his feet?” “Yes” replied my daughter. “Well” she continued, “My brother threw me up into the air, and I didn’t land on my feet!” she replied.
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Elaine's Cut
