When I think of my favorite family stories, they are almost always funny, and often the result of someone suffering significant embarrassment. Like the time my big sister wore a wrap-around dress that got stuck in the booth at the renowned Caesar’s Palace brunch. She didn’t notice it until she had nearly passed the entire booth next to ours and felt a cool draft. Then I am pretty sure she had a hot flash as her face turned bright red and she quickly pirouetted back to her seat. I don’t recall how long it took to clear my tears of laughter, but some four decades later, it still makes us both laugh!
There are dozens of stories like this that come to mind occasionally when some new situation arises that reminds us of something from our past. We delight in the chance to recount the memory in detail and we laugh all over again.
One of my goals in 2020 is to round up as many of my family’s favorite stories as I can and preserve them. It will be quite easy and inexpensive to put a book together and print enough paperback copies for anyone in the family who wants one.
A family Zoom call might be a good place to start the brainstorming process, not to mention providing some levity in these difficult days. Then I will ask everyone to let me know if they think of a story that didn’t get mentioned in our Zoom brainstorming session.
It would probably be wise to write one story at a time and then send it out to the group to see if there are any requests for changes. However, I think it will be more fun to write all the stories and have a few copies printed first – they may be stocking stuffers this year. The books will probably only cost about $3 and I will only need a few, so I’ll reprint them if corrections need to be made.
How are you preserving your favorite family stories? Let me know in the comments below!
Let us know what you think!