Silly

This weekend in between hurricane-force squalls and half-days on the lawn mower going over the exact same grass I had cut just two days earlier, I ventured out to some of our county beaches to take pictures.

This is from the public landing near Haven Beach, at the end of a road infested with Hitchcock-worthy swarms of killer fiddler crabs. For further details, read Saturday's post. I can't talk about it any more unless a trained psychiatric professional is present.

Anyway.

Yesterday at the Chesapeake Bay Family's Father's Day Extravaganza (which thanks to CB Mother included fried flounder, spiced shrimp, crab casserole, scallops, asparagus, salad from the garden, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, homemade chocolate chip cookies, homemade blackberry ice cream and a free ticket to Overeater's Anonymous), Chesapeake Bay Mother gave me a couple of contributions to the blog. The first one is below.

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'TIS HUMAN TO ERR; TO BE SILLY, DIVINE
by Chesapeake Bay Mother

Husband and I have one grand and glorious trait in common: we are silly.

For his part, I have written proof in the form of a now-yellow and crumbling elementary school report card in which the teacher remarks that Husband's work was suffering because, "He is at times silly." His war-worn Brigadier General father wrote under her remarks, "Thank you. I am certain the condition is temporary." Boy, he sure got that wrong. Husband's silliness continues to this day to the embarrassment of all who love him.

I share his unfortunate behavioral flaw. Perhaps a common gene afflicts us both, the foot-in-a-bucket, Sponge-Bob-party-hat-wearing, whoopee-cushion-planting gene that, when expressed in two married folks, portends an unceasing "Anything Can Happen Day."

I come from a very long line of silly people. I recall my mother remembering her mother, hardships and all, breaking unexpectedly into a happy dance. Mother had her own happy dance with sound effects. It was something to see (and hear).

I modestly assert that I am the true author of [the Chesapeake Bay Family's much-used expression] "Boom Bam Bippy Ting" (the bippy came from Laugh-In, the TV show; but the boom, bam and ting are original). I constructed from this an extended homespun-happy-hymn of optimism and nonsense. Husband claimed ownership of the phrase and grandchildren imitate him.*

On Husband's side, his mother made some notable contributions to the Book of Silly. Her middle son painted an abstract representation of what I would have titled, "Cantaloupe with Pigtails." I caught her studying it hanging in the dining room, when she turned to me in a state of excited epiphany and declared, "I know what it is! It's his baby!" One can only agree with someone so thoroughly convinced, but I have to say her middle son hated women, hated children, but loved cantaloupe.

If it is genetic, our malady may have passed on to our children and grandchildren, who will be condemned to lives of wearing crab-shaped hats, exclaiming "Boom-Bam-Bippy!" and playing bathroom sounds on the public address system of a hoity-toity department store. **

As old Samuel Morse said in his first successful code transmission over wire: "What hath God wrought?"

Indeed.
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Chesapeake Bay Woman's Obsessive Need to Have the Last Word:

*I have much to say on the topic of CB Mother's expression, but given that this post already extends from here to the Philippines, I'll save it for later.

** This has to do with Chesapeake Bay Baby Sister--it's important that we make that clarification. I would never make such noises over a PA system in a department store, although voice mail systems are a different story entirely.

Boom Bam Bippy.