your kids sure are blonde
Most of the time, I end up thinking of snappy, clever responses after the fact instead of when I really need them. Once in a while, though, I come up with something on the spur of the moment that surprises me in it's originality, wittiness, and ability to really leave people speechless for a moment. Until they laugh.
My favorite such moment of extreme clarity and wittiness took place in Chicago back in the early 90's. I spent many weekends going there as a member of a national committee that was creating a pediatric emergency nursing course. It was hard work, but a lot of fun and in the end, really made a big difference in pediatric emergency nursing care. But that isn't what this is about.
During one of our first meetings, we went out to eat, using our per diem money that we were given for such purposes. We were a group of women from all over the country, all about the same age give or take a few years, who were in the process of balancing our family life with work and trips to Chicago. Of course, like most women, we sat around and talked about our kids. We also probably made assumptions about each other based on where we were from, how we dressed, and even what we ate.
Being from Utah, I was pretty used to people asking me whether or not I was a Mormon. As it turns out, Mormons are viewed with a lot of misconceptions in the rest of the world....they are, as they even describe themselves, "a peculiar people", but they do not have horns and do not have more than one wife. Yup, there is polygamy in Utah but these are not bonafide Latter Day Saints as it is outlawed by the true LDS church.
Sometimes my dinner companions came right out and asked, "Are you Mormon" and other times, they just waited to see if I had wine with my dinner - or coffee with breakfast.
This particular group didn't ask right out. We made small talk, and started getting pictures of our kids out of our wallets to pass around. I did order wine with my dinner which I am sure was noted.
When it was my turn to share my pictures, I dug out a picture of Kseniya and Dan. The only picture I had in my wallet at the time of my oldest son, Bill was this one:
I passed it around and said, with a straight face, "And this is my oldest son Bill, with his dad".
There was silence from the group. Finally one of them said, "Your kids sure are blonde". All of my kids were blonde haired and blue eyed - and "clear" as Michael Jordan said about Larry Bird in an old movie.
I did tell them the truth after there were a few other innocent comments like "Wow, your husband is sure tall", etc.
To this day, 20 some years later, I still smile when I remember this. I think Thurl Bailey would smile too.
My favorite such moment of extreme clarity and wittiness took place in Chicago back in the early 90's. I spent many weekends going there as a member of a national committee that was creating a pediatric emergency nursing course. It was hard work, but a lot of fun and in the end, really made a big difference in pediatric emergency nursing care. But that isn't what this is about.
During one of our first meetings, we went out to eat, using our per diem money that we were given for such purposes. We were a group of women from all over the country, all about the same age give or take a few years, who were in the process of balancing our family life with work and trips to Chicago. Of course, like most women, we sat around and talked about our kids. We also probably made assumptions about each other based on where we were from, how we dressed, and even what we ate.
Being from Utah, I was pretty used to people asking me whether or not I was a Mormon. As it turns out, Mormons are viewed with a lot of misconceptions in the rest of the world....they are, as they even describe themselves, "a peculiar people", but they do not have horns and do not have more than one wife. Yup, there is polygamy in Utah but these are not bonafide Latter Day Saints as it is outlawed by the true LDS church.
Sometimes my dinner companions came right out and asked, "Are you Mormon" and other times, they just waited to see if I had wine with my dinner - or coffee with breakfast.
This particular group didn't ask right out. We made small talk, and started getting pictures of our kids out of our wallets to pass around. I did order wine with my dinner which I am sure was noted.
When it was my turn to share my pictures, I dug out a picture of Kseniya and Dan. The only picture I had in my wallet at the time of my oldest son, Bill was this one:
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| Billy and Thurl, Bailey, at Jazz camp. Thurl use to play for the Utah Jazz |
I passed it around and said, with a straight face, "And this is my oldest son Bill, with his dad".
There was silence from the group. Finally one of them said, "Your kids sure are blonde". All of my kids were blonde haired and blue eyed - and "clear" as Michael Jordan said about Larry Bird in an old movie.
I did tell them the truth after there were a few other innocent comments like "Wow, your husband is sure tall", etc.
To this day, 20 some years later, I still smile when I remember this. I think Thurl Bailey would smile too.
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