Family Comedian

The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.
e.e. cummings

He has always made me laugh. Making children laugh was something he was always doing. Silly and goofy things he did that designed to draw giggles are some of the best of my memories. He played characters for us -- Zacherle and Lurch being two of my favorites. He always had a mischievous streak a mile wide, and it showed. He told us tons of jokes (the sillier the better), and was always coming up with something new that was sure to cause hilarity. It always worked. Even now, when so much of him is fading away, his humor still surfaces, and still makes me laugh. Granted, now it's a bittersweet laugh, but a laugh is a laugh.

I will never forget him telling the first "off-color" joke of my life at the dinner table one night. I know Mom was irritated that he told it to us, but I can still hear us kids laughing to this day.

Here's the joke:

A woman went on a cruise. One night, when the ship was far out to sea, the waiter came to her table to take dinner orders. The woman asked the waiter what kind of vegetables the were serving that night. The waiter responded that the vegetable du jour was peas. The woman was thrilled and said to the waiter, "Oh my goodness, I haven't had a pea in ages! I can't wait! How wonderful!" With that, the waiter jumped up on the table and yelled to everyone: "Man the lifeboats! All those who can't swim hang on to the chandelier!!"

I didn't say it was a great joke, but the toilet humor and play on words sure struck us funny!

Another one I remember vividly is about Jose. It's not politically correct, but too bad. This is my blog, and my Dad's jokes, and I'm putting it in anyway. Suck it up if you don't like it.

A young man named Jose came to the United States from Mexico. His mother worried about him being alone in a strange country, so when she spoke to him on the phone she asked him if everything was going well, and if Americans were friendly. He reassured her that he was doing very well and was very happy here. He said to her, "Mama, Americans are so friendly you won't believe what they did. I went to Yankee Stadium to see a baseball game, but I couldn't afford a ticket. I snuck in, and couldn't find a place to sit where I could watch the game, so I climbed the flagpole and sat at the very top. Do you know what these wonderful Americans did? Right before the game started, they all stood up and sang......'Jose, can you see.......?' "