Where did you get your sense of humor?

Ever wonder where your sense of humor came from?

I got mine from my dad. He was always pulling pranks on the family, sometimes in a very creative way.

When we lived on the farm and my dad came out of the house, all five of us kids in unison shouted, “Can we go with you?”

That was a sore spot with my dad, so he told us to go in and get cleaned up. We raced inside because we thought we would be headed to town.

We came out raring to go, but then my dad went to the outhouse. It taught us a lesson about asking to go all the time.

That little trick humored my dad and taught us a lesson.

Later, when we moved to town, he got us a number of times. He kept saying that he could kick higher than any of us. Professional kickers we were not. My dad, who was 200 pounds and about 6 feet tall, kept bragging about how high he could kick. That consumed several evenings. Everyone but my mother was kicking up a storm. This went on for quite a time, and my dad fanned the “kicking fun” as long as he could. My oldest brother won the contest.

However, my dad didn’t let the sleeping dog lie too long. He told us how fast he could run and was instantly challenged. Dad said he could run around the house faster than anyone. He kept this up for a couple of weeks.

I don’t think he had any intent to try and run.

But it kept us challenged and that was sport.

My brother Bob tried his own angle, which didn’t work.

We lived next to the publisher of our local newspaper. The owner of the paper had a rooster that he was proud of and Bob hated that rooster.

So Bob killed the rooster. When he was quizzed about it he claimed that the rooster chased him around the house and tripped over a clod and fell and broke its neck.

Needless to say, we never relied on Bob to come up with an excuse when needed.

My dad never got after Bob for the story. I think he marveled at the story of the rooster.

I think I picked up my dad’s humor, but I was never that clever. Bob won first prize on that.