Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Little Men

A man's sense of humor begins at age ten.

When he is nine, his humor is restricted to what I call "Shrek humor." That means his laughter is over bodily sounds being emitted--on purpose--during the stillness of a test at school.

By age ten, he has refined his wit. He has learned the subtle implication of...the tease. He never forgets this and perfects the tease for use on his future wife. We-- his teachers, his mother, his sisters--all participate, whether willingly or not, while he hones his manly skill.

My student, Parker, is a ten year old. Yesterday, I was his subject.

Shannon: Randi, why do people always say I have blond hair? I have brown hair!

Me: Shannon, as a little girl you did have blond hair. Even though your hair has gradually gotten darker over the years, I still always think of you as a blond girl. Maybe that's true for others too.

I looked around the room and spied another former blondie.

Me: For example, look at Cody. Until recently, Cody has always had blond hair. Now his hair is turning darker and is brown. Yet I still would probably describe him as a blond.

Parker: We know what you mean, Randi. We still think of you as brown-haired, even though now you are gray.

I did the womanly thing and feigned outrage. The class laughed and Parker enjoyed the attention. I smiled and promised revenge, knowing that I was only helping a boy ease into his future role as professional tease.

It was easy to be gracious when in fact I only have about seven gray hairs on my entire head.

5 comments:

  1. Oh LOVE IT! Good one - I didn't realize they start so young?!!

    I came here through Writer Dad's post and thought your comment was beautiful! I agree wholeheartedly... there are some places I visit (full of comments/visitors) and yet I wonder if all they do is bash one person or another.

    Oh oh. As I write this, I realized my last post was a rant which I do not normally do. Sigh.

    Hi. And Happy to be here!

    Daisy

    ReplyDelete
  2. Really? You ranted? Where is this supposed rant? You are far too kind to rant. Oh and by the way, ranting against politicians or Hollywood doesn't count as a rant--it's an obligation.

    Glad to see you here again!

    [check out Daisy's site at http://namasdaisy.com ]

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oops! I forgot that Writer Dad has TWO Daisies! (One can never have enough Daisies!)

    The Daisy that wrote this comment was from a beautiful site at http://answerstartswithyou.wordpress.com

    Sorry Daisy!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Randy: Your grandma Dries used to get me to pull out her stray gray hairs until they became too many.
    Unca Danny

    ReplyDelete
  5. Danny,

    Ya wanna come over? (Assuming you have not lost your gray hair scoping abilities)

    ReplyDelete

You won't be paid for it, but at least you'll know that you have contributed intelligence to the universe...

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