Adjectives

I love when the family gets together! The stories come out, repetitive sometimes, but some are worth it! One of my favourites is my husband’s. We used to have a three story house in Oshawa with an in ground pool in the back, a sunroom was on the back of the house and we had our TV set up in there. One night quite late, we heard someone scuffling around outside the sunroom door in the back. We had blinds on all the windows and they were closed, not wanting to go near the door or the windows, we were creeped out. So my hubby and his buddy went out the front and to the back for the element of surprise! Surprised they were when the burst through the back gate, armed with bats, to find a family of racoons. The momma racoon was holding open the garbage and the babies were having a feast on leftover bbq. Momma was huge! Bigger than a dog and here she was bench pressing the lid and a piece of plywood with one hand! When she saw the humans she took off running, babies in tow. They ran down to the pool, swimming across for a quick escape. This story is timeless and is told quite often.

Fast forward ten years, hubby started a job here in New Brunswick and during lunchtime shared his infamous racoon story. A coworker with a thick accent proceeded to tell one of his stories of a fishing up northern New Brunswick. They were all out on a boat, his buddy had a bite. It was huge and heavy and it took three of them to haul it in. Much to there surprise it was a, and grasping for the word proceeded to hold his arm up and swing it back and forth over his head, ” It was one of those things they used on the railway…” Someone blurted out, “lantern!” and the story continued. ” That’s just it, the most amazing part, it was still lit!” Now of course the boys in the room called BS! Specifically, he turned to my husband and said, “You downsize your racoon, and I’ll put the light out!” The best, and now our racoon story can never be told without the lantern story follow up! Quick wit and hilarious!

Sometimes we embellish our stories and only the most sophisticated responses can call you out and add flavour. Not to diminish your story, but to add humour. Our story was true, it grew bit over the years as stories do. His story I assume was true too, and I love the class he used, not shame, no menace, perfect! Was it planned, that it was a light to illuminate the exaggeration? That’s a sitcom bit if I ever heard one!