Memories.....

Well, I was going to write about resolutions. You know, those things we make at the end of each year and promptly forget when the new year starts. I wasn't going to list any for me, since I don't think I have ever kept one in my life. So, I decided to make some resolutions for other people....like, telling Tom Cruise to stop smiling that maniac smile. But, since the main reason I started this is to give some family history to my kids......not that any of them know that I am doing this. I will leave my name and password to this in my will.....

That being the case, here is something I started thinking about last night. Late last night. Started laughing and upset Gumbo so much that he got off the couch. (Mike is here with her husband and baby and I gave them my bed.)

I am the only girl and the youngest in my family. I was both spoiled and.....well, I don't know what I would call it. Anyway, I loved playing jokes on my family (usually I was the only one who laughed). I went through a spell of thinking it hilarious to pretend to pull the chair out from under one of my brothers as the started to sit. I would laugh like crazy when they would sit half-way and then jump up to keep from falling.

One night, my mother (who was a bingo fanatic) talked me and two of my brothers into going over to State Line and playing bingo. Afterwards, we went to a local diner for burgers. At least, that was the plan. The diner has been there forever, I think, and is really small, four tables max and maybe eight stools at the counter. This night the were maybe six people there including the cook and waitress. Everyone was sitting at the counter with their backs to the tables. We, mama, Bobby Joe, Wayne and me, walked into the diner and headed for a table. Mama sat down, then I sat next to her. Wayne pulled out a chair and sat across from us. Just as Bobby Joe pulled his chair out, I got this uncontrollable urge to nudge his chair just a tad, enough to startle him. The chair shot across the room and in slow motion Bobby Joe started to sit and proceeded to go all the way to the floor and lay flat out on the floor. He immediately jumped up, picked up the chair and threw it at the table, yelling at me, then turned and stomped out of the diner. Mama looked at me like she could easily choke me and got up and left too. Wayne gave me a 'you a** is grass' look and left too. That left me to walk out alone with everyone at the counter turned around on their stools looking at me.

I was surprised that they hadn't driven off. I think if Bobby Joe had been driving, I would have been looking for a ride home that night. As it was, it was an hellacious ride home. Mama was talking about how she never got to do anything fun and enjoyable. Bobby Joe was cussing me and telling me that he was never going anywhere with me again, and wondering what the people in the diner thought when he just layed out on the floor. That got me to thinking about it. See, not one of the people sitting at the counter saw anything. They were all sitting with their backs to us. And, the chair made no noise as it slid across the floor (I swear the floor must have been waxed that day because I barely nudged the chair, honest) and Bobby Joe made no sound as he slowly went down. What the other customers saw and heard was four people walk into the diner, then, suddenly one of them starts yelling and cussing and throwing a chair, and then we all walk out again.

It would have been better on me if I had not thought about this. I got a laughing fit. The kind of laughing where you snort. Bobby Joe got madder. Mama got more pitiful. And, Wayne kept looking at me like I had totally lost my mind.

It was at least ten days before I was forgiven. Or, if not forgiven, then plans were being made to get even.