These are two stories wrapped up in one and they involve bringing my friends from Beloit home the first time.
Beloit had a mid-semester break, and a number of my friends were going to travel through O’Hare, so my family offered to let them stay with us. We got to my house late that afternoon–Me, Kevin, Stephie, and Serena–and the first thing my dad does is cook for us.
We start watching TV together–all of us–when Kevin and I disappear to go do things. I think we were playing a video game or we were calling another friend, Sara.
My brother gets home while I’m not in TV room. I’m with Kevin dorking around. I hear my 17-year-old brother say, “Dad, I got speeding ticket.” This is where all hell breaks loose. My dad is PISSED at Tony because he got a ticket in DuPage County–and he is worried that Tony is going to lose his license or pay more for car insurance.
Serena is trapped with my brother and father in the room as they “discuss” the ticket. After a few minutes of details (Tony had the car switched to Kilometers per hour AND They were shooting rubber bands at another car in their high school caravan), they notice they have a giggling guest. So they put on a show for Serena. She’ll correct me if I’m wrong, but, I remember her telling me that they BOTH started making faces at each other and inane points just to see who could get her to laugh harder.
The next morning, before all of my friends leave for their respective destinations, my dad cooks them breakfast. Five rounds of pancakes, at least a pound of sausage and a pound of bacon and a two dozen eggs. When Kevin says, “Oh my god pat, stop!” He retorts, “Whatever. Your skinny and you live in Beloit. They don’t feed you there. You need to eat.”
When the semester started again, that breakfast was the talk of the dorm.
Technorati Tags: Beloit, Family, Gleason, grief, mourning, Breakfast
I don’t remember your dad making faces; he was pretty involved in just being pissed off. If I remember, part of it was that Tony’d gotten the ticket in DuPage, and Pat didn’t “know” anyone there. Tony, however, was making more faces than a barker at a carnie sideshow! Your dad just kept going, and Tony kept making faces. I wasn’t sure if I should crawl into the cabinet and hide, or just freeze, ‘cuz I knew if I started laughing at Tony, I was toast!