I Think It Was My Turn

Laughter really is good medicine.  It’s supposed to reduce pain, help decrease stress, provide strength to your relationships, assist with a healthy heart, and much more. To laugh truly helps create an all around healthier individual.  And believe me, all of this is really good, because our family and most of those with whom I spend time, tend to find humor in pretty much everything. In fact, for some strange reason many of the get-togethers I go to end up with someone in attendance who generally goes above and beyond and provides the group with an extra plus dose of comedic entertainment. Sometimes it’s a random someone, and sometimes it winds up being either my husband or me.

Generally that extra bit of memorable humor is a result of some kind of verbal spewage.  The cutest of course comes from little kids, who say random comments similar to these quotes that I pulled off of TheDadJam.com.

JACK (age 3) was watching his Mom breast-feeding his new baby sister.
After a while he asked: ‘Mom why have you got two? Is one for hot and
one for cold milk?’

MELANIE (age 5) asked her Granny how old she was. Granny replied she
was so old she didn’t remember any more. Melanie said, ‘If you don’t
remember you must look in the back of your panties. Mine say five to six.’

Those, of course are cute and funny little quips, especially if they happen in real time and they’re your own kids. But, those amusing and often more memorable moments aren’t always a result of a humorous comment and aren’t always from young children. Quite often the best and most talked about entertainment comes from adults making an attempt to do something that maybe they shouldn’t.

For example about a year and a half ago we held our ski patrol banquet at our home.  We live on several acres of land and have a very small pond in our backyard.  Of course the entire event was chalk full of fun and laughter, but one gentleman in particular provided us with the best story and most spectacular comedic memory.  As part of the entertainment for our banquet I put together a small treasure hunt. One of the legs included a paddle across our pond in an old rubber kayak.  This particular patroller stands nearly six feet six inches tall and must weigh at least 240 pounds. His trek across our pond started with a flying belly flop from a good ten feet above the water’s edge into the kayak. The impact not only drenched him, but also zipped him straight across the pond where he proceeded to fall into the cold murky water. The event has gone down as one of the most magnificent and humorous feats in our history. Those who were there will be chuckling about it for years to come.

The Canoe

Unfortunately this past weekend the job of providing that ‘extra touch’ in a group gathering fell to me.  Thanks to a friend of mine, and a fellow ski patroller, a group of us have embarked on our second year of wine making.  The day began early with cleaning and sanitizing equipment and prepping our shop for the stemming and crushing of grapes. By 11 a.m. we were well underway. By the end we had bottled last year’s batch of Pinot Noir, made five gallons of cider, stemmed and vatted nearly 100 pounds of Zinfandel, stemmed and vatted over 1100 pounds of new Pinot Noir, and stemmed and then crushed and vatted an additional 1100 plus pounds of Pinot Gris.  By midnight, those of us who were still standing set about crushing the final bit of white.

This is the grape stemmer. I couldn't find a picture of the crusher.

As my husband explained later, due to my short stature and rather aggressive nature I apparently have a unique way of strong-arming the crusher – a way that in and of itself provides a great deal of amusement to any spectator. So, to the group’s insistence I agreed to make the final few pulls.  The concrete floor was sated with juice and dirt and water and grape parts and who knows what else.  I attempted to use the side of the barn to stabilize my feet, and as I pulled everyone laughed and cheered. And then I was on the floor. On the fifth or sixth pull the metal lever came out of the crusher, my feet flew up into the air, and my body projected itself a good eight feet backwards. In the end I landed flat on my backside in all of the muck.  Gee, too bad no one had a video camera rolling. In spite of my goal, I did go above and beyond and added that extra plus dose of comedic entertainment.

I supposed most all of us do something similar at one time or another. And what the heck! Laughter is the best medicine – whether that entertainment is provided by someone else or by ourselves doesn’t matter. It’s simply good to laugh.