Chapter 8 of Family Memories -funny stories about family

Any funny stories to share about your siblings or family?

Arlie: I enjoyed pranks. One Thanksgiving all the relatives got together. I put an air bulb and hose under Uncle Lyall’s plate. Lyall had a bottle of liquor and he was the only one drinking. Each time he took a drink, I would squeeze the air bulb and his plate would jump. Everyone at the table was in on the joke. Lyall thought it was the liquor playing tricks on his eyes. Eventually someone laughed and the whole group cracked up.

Denny: Our family was eating at a restaurant in Port Angeles (a rare treat). The three of us kids usually ordered hot turkey or hot beef sandwiches and I was sitting next to Dale who was about 5. He decided his roll needed jelly and reached over and took my cranberry sauce to put on his roll. I was quite indignant and he didn’t even know it wasn’t jelly.

Dale: When Susy was about 4 years old, Arlie chaperoned her, myself, and Denny to the Uptown Theater to see a Disney nature movie. The audience was paying rapt attention to the scenes of Yellowstone National Park. All was quiet when the scene shifted to the bubbling mud pots. The gloppy, gloopy mixture would go buhloop, buhloop, buhloop. Had Susy not attended the audience would merely have watched in fascination until the camera panned to the next scene. But Susy was amused by the buhloops and began tittering. Little tee hees at first, crescending into uninhibited hah-hah-hahs. Her amusement was infectious and soon the entire theater was laughing in hysteria.

Sue S: This funny story is really an embarrassing one for me. Mom made all my clothes—even bathing suits. One time she made me one with elastic around the whole top part of the suit. I thought I looked stunning. We took it on vacation and as I was showing off in the pool I pushed hard with my feet from the side of the pool with my back in the water and my front facing up. The whole top of my suit pushed down to my waist from the force of my kickoff. My breasts were in total public view. I almost drowned trying to recover from the embarrassment and then I didn’t know how long I had to stay in the pool before I could nonchalantly leave.

Janie: Les and I were going to build a bridge across the swamp. We hauled everything we could down there in the way of wood and then the police showed up to talk to dad and put a halt to our building.

Tiffany: I was visiting at my dad’s house. My half-brother and step-sisters were in the car as we were on our way home. We had gathered a bunch of grasshoppers and I had them in a jar when I got a brilliant idea to let one go. More than one got out and they jumped in my stepmother Renee’s hair. I can still hear her screaming bloody murder. I’m sure I got spanked. I was so mean.

Joyce: Cousin Linda and I started the Dilly Dally Club. Janie wanted to join so we had an initiation ceremony and put her through various stunts—like blindfolding her and telling her to drink a cup of water. While drinking, we held a strong bottle of perfume under her nose. Janie and I had a secret saying we said at night when either of us didn’t want to talk anymore and wanted to go to sleep. It was “Ding and no Dongs!”  Ding meant you could talk and Dong meant no more talking.  Living next door, I often spent the night at Linda’s. Her younger brother, Jimmy, couldn’t go to sleep without singing at the top of his lungs. It drove us crazy but her folks tolerated the behavior. Over and over, he would sing the lyrics to his favorite song—“Beating on the ding dong all night long”.  I found out years later it was from an old 78 record by Jim Reeves.

Cindy: When I was about five years old, my mother forgot Marlee at church one Sunday. I can remember riding home from church, alone in the BIG HUGE back seat of mother’s Bonneville Pontiac, and never once wondering where Marlee was. When we got home, mother looked back and was astonished that there was no Marlee! We drove back downtown to get her (real fast!) and there she was standing on the front steps, waiting.

Sue W: I used to be able to get Jenni to “fall” for Santa’s trap door, and I could get her out of a bad mood by doing the shimmy. (still can) I remember something about a family gift –a stick with poop on it.

Mary: I remember running away to the Aragons (in Kirkland). Dad brought my clothes up to their house to teach me a lesson. I was shocked! I remember friends Candi, Jenny, Shari and Tami spending the night in Jr. High and high school, and how we always sneaked out to meet up with Joey and Danny. Mom knew what we were doing. I remember stealing the car by pushing it out of the driveway before starting it. I also remember holding Joe upside down over the toilet and flushing—scaring him to death.