When my youngest daughter was little, she would run around with no clothes on after she got out of the shower. She would stand in the hallway upstairs outside of her room, raise one arm above her head and the other down by her side and shout “I’m Naked!” She didn’t do it all the time but often enough that it became a family thing that everyone knew about. Actually, she said “I’m Nekkid!” but we are from the South, so I assumed this is what you were thinking anyway.
I’m writing this post on the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. I was 6 years old when this happened. I remember seeing footage of the event on television at my grandmother’s house. I was young enough at the time that I assumed everything I saw was live. I was also confused enough to think that he was his brother John. For years I told people that I remembered seeing the assignation of President Kennedy on live television. When I started hearing people talk about him being killed at Dealey Plaza while riding in a convertible, I thought, “These people are wrong!” I know I saw him in the kitchen of that hotel!” Book Depository? Grassy Knoll? I didn’t know anything about all that. What I saw was probably on a Thursday morning news report instead of the “live” coverage I assumed I was seeing.
I have recently started receiving several scam calls on my cell phone. Most recently, they left the following message in my voicemail:
“Ignoring this will be an intentional second attempt to avoid initial appearance before a magistrate judge or a grand jury for a federal criminal offense. Now this is the final attempt to reach you. To know your final case number and to speak to a federal agent, call back on 201-639-8895. I repeat, it is 201-639-8995.”
This is the actual number they left. I had received an identical message a week earlier from another phone number. They were persistent and left 3 messages before I blocked their number. I had a little time after I received this latest message and decided to give them a call back. I thought it would be best to try and not call them from my cellphone, so I called from a land line.
A few years ago, we went to eat lunch at a restaurant on Mother’s Day after church. Only my immediate family were present, so it was my wife and our three kids. We were at a family style chain restaurant. The hostess seated us with my son and I on one side of the table and my wife and daughters on the other side. We had been seated less than a minute when my son leaned over and whispered to me that he thought television celebrity Montel Williams was sitting at the table behind our women. I looked but couldn’t really tell. My son whispered across the table to tell his younger sister that he thought that Montel Williams was sitting behind her. She turned around and looked. When she turned back she was excited and whispered that she thought it was him too.
In 1996, my family and I moved to a small town in middle Tennessee. I had been working in this new town for a couple of months before we were able to relocate the whole family to our new town. I had been staying in a hotel while starting the new job. On the day we were moving into our new home, I didn’t see my family until I stopped off during my lunch break. We had movers doing our relocation which was a big help considering our move was over 4 hours away. We also had two very small children at the time.
When my kids were little, they would sometimes sleep over at my parent’s house. My girls would sleep with my mom and my son would sleep with my dad. During one of these sleep-overs, my son had gas. He was breaking wind regularly and my dad was trying to talk him into stopping. I’m sure my son thought it was funny. This was during a time when my immediate family lived about 4 hours from my parents and we didn’t see them as often. My son also watched a lot of professional wrestling around this time and had a bit of wrestler attitude for a 4-year-old. My dad continued to correct him. Finally, my son sat up in the bed, looked at my dad and said, “You…are a LOSER!”
My son didn’t get in trouble and my dad had a laugh.
I have written several posts about my wife walking and talking in her sleep. Some of the more interesting things she has said like this had to do with times around when she had seizures. Nearly all these stories have taken place before our kids were born. They haven’t had the pleasure of being entertained by their mother talking in their sleep. Except one night when our oldest daughter wasn’t feeling good. She came downstairs in the middle of the night to for something for a cough. Most kids want their mother when they don’t feel good and she was no exception. She went and tapped her mom on the shoulder and asked her for something for her cough. My wife replied, “Put the shoe in the bucket!” That’s when my daughter came to my side of the bed, woke me up and told me what her mother said.
When my wife wakes me up in the middle of the night, it’s rarely for a good reason. One night she woke me up shouting “Feel of the wall!!” I was sound asleep and wasn’t sure what she had said so when I asked she shouted again, “Feel of the wall!!” I assumed that she had been awake for a while and had a good reason for me to feel of the wall. So I reached through the headboard and placed my hand next to her hand, which was against the wall. I didn’t feel anything unusual about the wall. Before I could comment or ask why we had our hands on the wall she said, “It’s sticky! And it stinks!” That’s when I realized that she was asleep.
This March, my wife helped me celebrate my birthday every day during the month. My birthday is on the 23rd but she gave me a gift every day. For several years, I have declared that I was celebrating my birthday all month but this year and the previous 2 years, she has given me a gift every day. This is my opportunity to say thanks to her and document this year’s gifts
My wife has a reputation for doing and saying things in her sleep. This story took place in our first house. It was before our children were born. My wife has some nice cross-stitched pieces that she had done that were based on Norman Rockwell works. We had several of these hanging in our bedroom. She had placed one on the wall on each side of our bed. She had another on the wall next to a window in our bedroom. One night I woke up and I could see her standing next to this picture reaching up like she was taking it off the wall. I asked her what she was doing. She said, “The man’s coming to get it!” I could tell from her response that she was asleep, so I got up and grabbed the picture to make sure she didn’t break it. I woke her up in the process. When I talked to her about this, she said she was having a dream. She was taking a certificate from a wall to give it to someone in the dream. It was a good think that I woke up when I did.