Moo ha ha , tee hee

   I have been told that people think I'm funny. Thankfully, only one was my mother. I have been trying to figure out what to do with this alleged "gift". This has been going on for a while, me floundering in mid life, that is. The humor thing has been going on since I was a kid. I loved mad libs in grade school and watched Mel Brooks movies as I got older. My father was probably the biggest smart-ass I knew. We kid's grew up with dear old Dad singing "Happy birthday to you, you escaped from the zoo, you look like a monkey, and you smell like one, too". I swear I thought that was how it was sung until around age 8.
   A steady diet of Bugs Bunny was also part of the program, although I think that was as much because the owner of the television was a fan as anything. I recently turned 50 and whenever I think about bitching about that fact too much, his words come back to me. "It could be worse, you could have a kid your age. " I read a joke that says what doesn't kill you gives you  unhealthy coping mechanisms and a warped sense of humor. Throw in a family history of depression and I think you've got a recipe for sarcasm. I should also point out that not only are we Polish people Not a slender race, we have no filters.
    My experiences as a kid were largely observational. It's also funny to think that as a Catholic family, my parents may have taken the old fashioned marriage vow that mentioned to "love, honor, and obey". My mother was 19 when she got married and claims that she didn't speak English at the time and so didn't understand what was going on. If my father expected any form of "obey" out of my mother, he was quickly disabused of that notion. I watched my parents function as best they could with little money and an unhappy marriage but we kids were of the seen and seldom herd variety.
   My own offspring has the luxury of being heard and she's inherited our family's capacity for humor and sarcasm. We've had a friend who warned us "the tape recorder is always on" you need to be careful about what you say around your kid. It surprises me how she manages to use what she hears appropriately. I can remember playing Candyland with her at age 4. Typically, I was not one to play any game aggressively with her but I also don't let her win. This particular time, she was winning until she selected a card that sent her back to start. She looked at her card and said "I got totally hosed!".  It came back to haunt me early, and it hasn't stopped yet.