Tell Us About: Laughter

In February, I joined the fabulous women from Is This Mutton, MK’s Adventures in Style, Deb’s World, Grownup Glamour, and Frugal Fashion Shopper for a global writing challenge. Later this year, Suzy from The Grey Brunette, Sue from Living Well after 50, Leslie from Once Upon a Time, Happily Ever After and I joined in on the fun permanently! Gail came up with this month’s prompt. I know exactly what I’m going to write which is a first! I hope you’ll visit all of these blogs because you are going to be amazed at, not only the diversity of the ideas, but the photos are fabulous! There’s also a link party on Is This Mutton.

As many of you know, I was a teacher for more than two decades. I started teaching in my 30s and took early retirement. But, I will tell you there was lots of laughter packed into those years! Of course, there were lots of tears, too. We’ll get to that, I promise.

“If Heaven exists, to know that there’s laughter, that would be a great thing.” Robin Williams

I think laughter is the result of humor. And, I find humor to be quite subjective. What makes Nigel chortle with glee is usually related to Willie Nelson, cars, or something I know very little about. I, on the other hand, am a veritable fount of hilarity! For some reason, though, Nigel frequently looks at me with confusion as I shake with mirth and merriment! All that to say, you may think my stories are just plain silliness. And, maybe they are, but I will tell you we laughed and laughed each time!

“Everybody laughs the same in every language because laughter is a universal connection.” Yakov Smirnoff

Let me start with a bit of history. For the first ten or so years of my teaching career, I was a special education teacher. And, yes, there was plenty of laughter. For instance, students with learning disabilities have problems with spelling. One of my young boys sent a love letter to a girl in his class: “I lick you. Do you lick me?” Easy to see the mistake, right? The young girl’s mom was not amused which was a sad thing. A little empathy and understand goes a long way, right? Fast forward a few years, and I was teaching fourth grade which is the absolute best grade ever! Fourth graders still like school; they’re independent (for the most part); and, they think you’re cool! For many of those years, I taught with one of two men in our building and another woman. We were a pretty fabulous team if I do say so myself! We came up with some interesting units, but you’re looking for laughter, right? Well, here it comes!

“Laughter is an instant vacation.” Milton Berle

Near the end of the school year, we would take our students to an overnight camp. There were lots of activities during the day. The really big “wow” came at night when we did an Underground Railroad reenactment in the dark. One of the stations was the sheriff who had a bonfire. At the end of the reenactment, we would have s’mores around the campfire and talk about the experience. We took almost as many parents as we did students. This particular year, we were talking to the dad who had been the sheriff and asked if he’d put out the fire. He had not. At this point, it was probably close to midnight. The bonfire was in the woods and probably at least half a mile from us…in the dark! The three of us immediately sprang into action because we were not going to be the teachers who burned down Camp Potawotami! My friend, K, ran for help from the camp staff. S, the male teacher, and I started filling buckets of water and carried those things, sloshing over the edges and soaking us, to the fire. The staff was unconcerned. All that night, K and I would get up, go out our door and peer toward the eastern sky. We figured if the sky wasn’t orange, we were OK. Again, perspective, people…as I read this it isn’t near as funny as it was in the days and weeks after Camp!

“The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.” Mark Twain

Enter D. S had moved to third grade a year or two before. D came to us from the Indianapolis area even though she had grown up close to Roanoke Elementary. We were cautiously optimistic about how well she would fit into our group. By this time K and I were thick as thieves (why are thieves thick anyway). In fact, K and I could finish each others’ sentences. We began to have a glimmer of hope the day D showed up wearing the same pair of shoes only one was black and the other brown. But, what really sealed the deal was the day the three of us were walking down the hallway to our classrooms after lunch. Roanoke, at the time, was an older building and had those doors with large windows in the top half. As we were walking along talking, all of a sudden, there was a thump. D had walked straight into that door! Honestly, the bed is shaking (that’s where I do most of my blogging) because I’m laughing so hard! It was in that moment, we knew we were kindred spirits!

“The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.” e. e. cummings

But the pièce de résistance occurred the year our school was to take part in a village art fair sponsored by some kind of arts council for the village. Our kids were going to paint en plein air which is a fancy way of saying they were going to paint outside! The art teacher had told us a bit about the project. The kids were going to paint the bridge that crossed Calf Creek (yes, that’s really it’s name…there’s a bigger one called Cow Creek). They had been studying Monet’s bridge at Giverny. The afternoon before the bridge painting was to occur, K and I were nervous wrecks trying to figure out the logistics of painting the bridge. And, we hadn’t sent home a note to let the parents know their kids were going to paint this bridge. We were also trying to figure out how the kids painting the middle of the bridge would get off the bridge without ruining another student’s work. And, what if it rained before the art fair and ruined their paintings? We were really working ourselves into a tizzy! D just looked at us like we were nuts. She assured us it would be OK. Do you see where this is going?

The day of the bridge painting dawned bright and beautiful with nary a cloud in the sky. After lunch, the kids and we three teachers trooped down to the bridge. The art teacher greeted us with supplies in hand. She handed each student their prepared piece of cardstock, art medium, and reminded them of the instructions. It was at that point, it dawned on K and me. The kids weren’t going to paint the actual bridge. They were going to paint a picture of the bridge! Every time, the three of us get together, one of us mentions the bridge escapade, and we are off into fits of giggles, chortles, snorts, and all kinds of laughter. Now that I think of it, I think I’ll have that bridge engraved on my tombstone!

“So keep fightin’ for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don’t you forget to have fun doin’ it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce.” Molly Ivins

Wrap it up, Marsha!

One of the things that drove my principal crazy was when I would smile at him for no apparent reason. Or, even worse, when I had every reason to be crying rather than smiling. I got that from my dad who said, “Keep smiling. It’ll keep ’em guessing.” But, have you ever laughed so hard, you’ve cried? And, I don’t mean tears of laughter. I mean, your laughter actually turned to tears of something else. I find that’s happened to me on many occasions. I’m laughing so very hard, but then the tears come, complete with the downturned mouth and even verge on sobs. There truly is a fine line between laughter and sadness. I hope I’ve helped you to stay on the laughter side for this post. So, can we talk? Do you think you have a good sense of humor? Have you ever created a situation for yourself that was just plain ridiculous and laughable, all at the same time? Can you believe two women with Master’s Degrees could be so silly? Please leave me a comment or two, and we can talk! I promise to respond quickly!

“There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt.” Erma Bombeck

Where you can find me:

Linking up with Nancy’s Fashion Style,  Fine-Whatever, Is This Mutton, Shelbee on the Edge, Chez Mireile, The Grey Brunette, and Away from the Blue as well as Deb’s World. I also link up with This Blonde’s Shopping Bag, Doused in Pink, I do deClaire, Mummabstylish, and Style Splash. Please check out these wonderful ladies and their blogs! I also am a co-host for Ageless Style on the third Thursday of the month and Songful Style on the last Monday of the month. I co-host Traffic Jam Weekend every Thursday with Melynda and Lisa. I also host Final Fridays on the last Friday of the month as well as 10 on the 10th on the 10th of the month! I do hope you’ll check out all of these blogs and link parties!

What others are saying…

Sue from Women Living Well After 50 looks at the importance of laughter & feeling connected for a healthy lifestyle after 50.

Penny from Frugal Fashion Shopper began writing a review of fun television that made her laugh and then wandered through several definitions of laughter concluding that laughter was a very healthy thing to do.

Gail from Is This Mutton wonders why so little on TV is funny these days, and why we seldom see older women making us laugh.

Debbie of Deb’s World shares personal stories of laughter and the importance of being able to laugh at yourself. Plus the power of a smile.

In Suzy’s reflection on laughter, she dishes on her favourite TV comedies, applauds hubby Michael’s distinctive British humour, and introduces the quirky personalities of pals Sarah and Laura, alongside the charming antics of her furry companions, Myrtle, Shannon, Sadie, and Luna. Find out more at The Grey Brunette.

Mary Katherine loves a good belly laugh, and writes about what has given her good ones over the years.  Find out what they are at MK’s Adventures in Style.

Leslie at Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After loves to laugh or cackle as her Prince Charming describes it.  And nothing makes her cackle more than the loves of her life. 

And, now, it’s your turn!

If you’d like to link up your imagination posts, please pop over to Gail’s blog, Is This Mutton, for the link up!

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