Lost In Nashville

This will be a short little story, but I do have to tell it. I have always been one to laugh at inappropriate times. I also have always been one to laugh when someone gets hurt or they fall, trip, bump their head, etc. It is not that I think it is funny that they are hurt, it is how they get hurt that makes me laugh. In between laughs, I try to ask them if they are okay and I am right on the spot to help them up or help them in any way that I can. I truly am sorry that they are in pain, but I cannot help myself. However, if how they fell is funny to me, I break in to uncontrolled laughter. I know that I am not the only one that does this. They even have shows about people getting hurt that people seem to love watching. I do not like to watch those shows at all, so I am not that bad of a person.

Anyway, this leads to my story of getting lost in Nashville. Mom and Dad were driving us down to visit our brother, Jerry, and his family. It was late at night, maybe around 11:00 p.m. and Dad was trying to find his way to a room for the night. He was getting very tired. They realized that they had just been going around and around and winding up at the same place each time. (Now would be a good time for the saying that men never stop to ask for directions and on and on. I do not know that he would not stop, I was just throwing that comment out there because I could. Haha.) Mom and Dad were in the front seat and my sister, Honey, and my brother, Phil, and I were in the back seat. Mom was talking about it not being good to be lost at such a late hour and was sounding like she was a bit fearful. They were getting low on gasoline as well. We were quiet and wondering if we should be worried/scared.

Dad kept driving and we kept ending up back at the same place. Finally mom spotted a police officer and said that dad could ask him for directions. They told us to all be quiet so that dad could speak to the officer and get us some help. Dad always drove these huge cars. I think we were in a Bonneville or something like that. Big old boats are what we called them. It was really nice, though. It had four doors and all electric doors and windows, which was a big deal then. So, Dad pulls up next to the officer and ever so calmly and being so cool, rolled down his window and stuck his head out as he was saying, “Hey, Buddy.” Well…. Dad rolled down the window and stuck his head out saying, “Hey, Buddy” . . . BUT he rolled down the back window! Hahahaha! His head did not go out the window and he actually hit his head pretty hard. Dad quickly grabs his head and is rubbing it and making a noise like you do when you are in pain, sort of a wail. Another thing to point out here is that Phil had his pillow against the window and was napping. His face when he woke up as that window was going down was such fun to see! He had no idea what was going on!

True to form, I totally bust out in laughter. My mom quickly turns around and is making faces at me telling me to stop. That is just fuel for the fire. I laugh even harder watching her make faces at me and being all frantic and stuff. Honey and Phil are lightly hitting at me telling me to stop and I only get worse. Honey and Phil can no longer control it and are laying down in the seat, hands over their mouths to stifle their laughter and burying their faces in pillows. I, witnessing all of these things, laugh harder and louder and harder and louder. They are all hysterical looking to me. A video of all of this would be nice.

Meanwhile, dad had finished rubbing his head and was listening to the officer explain the directions to him. Poor dad, hurt head and his family acting up and he has to pay attention to directions. He did a great job, though. Then, he rolled up the window and turned around to me and said…”Well, you would have a wonderful time at a funeral!” That did it. It was all over. I was rolling then and, in fact, everyone else finally openly released their laughter. Dad was sort of smiling, he was not really angry and he looked at me. I said, “Hey, Buddy!” and pretended to hit the window with my head and that was when he lost it and joined in the laughter. We laughed until we could barely breathe.

As you have read that we have done before, this is another comment that we occasionally will make and everyone will laugh because we remember the story . . . Hey, Buddy!