A Sense of Humor

I sometimes think that the only way to get through this crazy life is to keep a sense of humor in good working order.  Both sides of my family were able to do that, and if I could have inherited just one thing, the sense of humor would have been what I would want.

Dad's side of the family pretty much had a dry sense of humor.  Any of Dad's siblings could say something totally outrageous and keep a straight face until it dawned on you that your leg was being pulled.  They pulled silly little pranks on one another, even when they were full grown adults, like Uncle Bruce stealing a part of a slice of pie off Dad's plate when his back was turned.  They teased one another, but never in a vicious way.  Dad liked to remind his siblings that he was the last child born in that family, so he was sure that his parents had saved the best for last.

They only got into trouble when the five boys got together and plotted some devilment, usually for Halloween.  At that time, indoor plumbing was rare, and everybody had outhouses.  The Matheny boys wouldn't tip over outhouses, as was the custom for boys to do on Halloween night.  They merely moved them over a foot or two so that the hole dug underneath wasn't where it was supposed to be, and if a person stood in the wrong spot, the outhouse might suddenly lean toward the direction of the now exposed hole.

The prank that became legendary in the family involved a Model T Ford car.  There was a man who lived in town who had a new Model T.  He was proud of this car to the point of being a bit obnoxious in his bragging.  This was something that the Matheny boys just couldn't let pass.  They managed to get that car up on the roof of the man's garage, and there it sat when he came out to drive it in the morning.  Dad would barely acknowledge to me that he and his brothers had anything to do with this, saying, "Somebody...I don't know just who..." did this.  And he would never tell me just how they got the car on the roof.  It wasn't until just a couple of years ago when I was talking to my brother that he told me Dad had once told him that he and his brothers had sort of dismantled the car, hauled the parts up to the roof and put the car back together.  They went to an awful lot of work for a joke, but I think it was probably worth it!

Dad's sense of humor stayed with him to the end.  He and his sister, Clarice, both resided in the same nursing home where Mom had lived.  Both were over the age of 90.  It seems that there was an exercise program for wheelchair bound residents, where they sat in their chairs and did arm and upper body exercises to keep up their strength.  Dad and his sister usually sat next to one another.  They would be dutifully doing their exercises when Dad would lean over and gently tap Clarice on the back of her head.  They would exercise some more and Clarice would reach over and lightly punch Dad on his shoulder.  After which he would retaliate, and so would she, until the staff member who was leading the group would say, "Now you two Matheny kids just behave yourselves!"  And they would, but only for a little while.

Clarice and Dad

My mother's only brother was the prankster in their family.  I have been told by cousins that he would wait until his parents had gone out of an evening, and then as soon as it got dark, he would conjure up a story or a creaking door or some crash-bang noises to scare his sisters.  He did this just to see if he could get them to run upstairs to their bedrooms, screaming all the way.  And it usually worked.  I think that must have been his revenge at being the only boy in a house full of girls.

Another time Uncle Duane convinced some of his visiting cousins that it would be fun to go out at night and steal some muskmelons from a neighbor's garden.  He lead them all over town, through back yards and down alleys and got them thoroughly turned around in direction until they came to the muskmelon patch.  It wasn't until the cousins each had a good sized melon in hand that they realized they had just stolen melons from their own family garden.

Mom and her sisters weren't big on playing jokes.  But when they all got together, there was always lots of talk and even more laughter.  I always enjoyed listening to them.

This isn't a very good photo, but it is the only one I have of Grandma and all of the Paul siblings.

Mom did, however, like to get one up on Dad every now and then.  This was a time when Fuller Brush and Kirby Vacuum Cleaner salesmen went door to door.  Dad went to work early in the morning, so he usually got home in the middle of the afternoon.  One afternoon he was greeted by Mom calling out as he came in the kitchen door that he should come into the living room, as there was a Kirby Vacuum Cleaner salesman there.  Mom later told me she knew how Dad would react and she wasn't disappointed.  He thought she was joking and called back to her that he didn't want to see any durned old salesman and that he had better hightail it out of there if he knew what was good for him.  And then he entered the living room and found himself face to face with the white-faced, wide-eyed salesman, vacuum in hand.  Dad told me later that he just sat there meekly through the whole demonstration.  He figured he owed the salesman that much for scaring him.

I don't know how some folks can go through life all grouchy and cranky.  Life, after all, is full of absurdities, and if you can't sit back and just laugh at yourself and the world around you, then it seems to me that you are in for a long and miserable life.  I'd rather laugh.