The Wringer

Welcome to another addition of Friday's Fun Family Facts.

If you've been a follower of my blog (that eliminates most of you...) you have probably gotten the sense that my family is pretty "unique".

We (my family) love unique people and we hang around with them too. My family's heroes come from lists of starving artists and philanthropists; people like My Step-Father's dad Val Cushing or, for that matter, my Step-Father himself...(yes, that is a bagpipe maker's company website).

Now, as a child growing up in a family with this philosophical bent, there are certain experiences that I was privileged to have that you, frankly, missed out on; living in a Tee-Pee, Gutting my own turkey for thanksgiving, sharing dinners in my home with political idealists wanted by the FBI for anti-war protests, and while other kid's brought fruit role-ups to school for snack we brought boiled eggs from our own chickens and fresh figs!

The price that one pays for this kind of upbringing, however, is that occasionally there are hazards in the home brought on by a commitment to natural, homeopathic/organic living. Your mom, for instance, washed your clothes in a washing machine - mine used a Wringer Washer:

Romantic...right? Actually, I can tell you from first hand experience that they work quite well as long as no one gets their fingers caught in the shirt they are feeding into the rollers because, as a 5 year old boy, they are trying to help their mother by feeding said shirt through the rollers while she has gone off to answer the phone. Let's just say that when you put something in the rollers as thick as a 5 year old boy's arm, the lever that releases the rollers gets jammed. Therefore, the only way to get that object (as thick as a boy's arm) out is to reverse the rollers and let it role it's way out - just the way it went in...

But these hazards aside, I can definitely say that my upbringing has added a richness and flavor to my life that a lot of you missed out on by having normal lives. And, as a minister, it gives me a quiet confidence knowing that there is little you can say that will surprise me.

Enjoy your weekend. I'll see you Sunday!