I grew up in a very twisted house.
Actually, our house was quite normal. The family living inside it....Very strange!
I was number three of four girls.
We had a passion for memorizing and reciting movie lines, comedians, Monty Python, and Saturday night live, to name a few.
No seriously, there were few chat sessions where movie lines didn't make their way into the conversation.
Sunday nights (after 8) were spent in various rooms of the house listening to Dr. Demento on the radio. Do you remember The Dr. Demento show? All those great songs...Dead Puppies, Fish Heads, oh and what was the name of the kiddie lovin' clown?
Hindsight, I wonder what in the world my parents were thinking exposing their daughters to such warped things.
I think I always assumed we were like any other self respecting family on the block/in the Ward. It wasn't until I was married to Jim that we would be talking and the perfect movie and line would come to mind. I would automatically throw in a quote, and he...well he would just give me a blank look.
Perhaps they weren't really blank looks. Perhaps he was wondering just what sort of mad woman he had married.
I would tell him "My sisters would know exactly what I was talking about. In fact they would be able to say the line that comes next!"
Jim "Sure they could...." with complete doubt in his inflection.
At that time he didn't believe me.
Now? After almost 19 years of marriage and who knows how many Lundberg family get togethers...He believes!
I remember Sarah coming home from school one day and telling me that they were watching "Better off dead" in her french class. I'm sure she was the only one in her class who had been hearing half of the lines in the movie since she was very small. She told me that now she knew what my sisters and I were talking about.
John Hughes provided an astounding amount of dialogue in my house. Oh, and let us not forget the repertoire we learned from Mel Brooks!
A couple of weeks ago Kacie expressed a desire to see Monty Python's Holy Grail. She had heard a number of her friends talking about it.
A trip to the video store soon followed.
The entire family (minus Sarah, of course) gathered around the tube to view what, despite being one of the lowest budget films ever made, is a classic.
When it was over Jim couldn't believe he had sat through the stupidity.
I enjoyed reliving bits of my youth!
A few night ago, Kacie and Sam were sitting at the table after dinner. Jim was gone, and I was lingering to listen their chosen topic of conversation.
Suddenly, it was as though I had never left my childhood home. My own children were were spewing the inane frivolity of my past.
"Coconuts don't migrate!"
"Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelled of elderberries!"
And many others...
Sniff...
wiping a tear from the corner of my eye
I'm so proud!
