Unexpected Humor

UNEXPECTED HUMOR

I never remember the punchlines of jokes. I don’t know the answer to “Knock, knock…” jokesters.

Humor seems to change with time.

Looking back at 1957, oh so long ago in Junior High, the big thrill was going to Webster’s Café for hot, greasy French fries dipped in piles of ketchup and ordering a flavored Coke from the soda fountain. 

You could order a cherry Coke, lemon Coke, chocolate Coke, or marshmallow Coke.

All the tastes were lip-smacking-great, but the best was a marshmallow Coke.

In the seventh grade, two or three of us at the table quickly stabbed our straws at the same time through the marshmallow topping, and our Cokes exploded all over the table, creating a glorious mess for the waitress to clean up as we laughed hysterically.

I think the thrill of it stopped finally when the waitress handed us a stack of napkins and sternly demanded we had to clean up the sticky mess or never come back to the café.
 
Now, I can imagine her going to the back of the kitchen and laughing with the cooks about how she’d terrified us into submission. I guess that would be two different sides of humor from our erupting marshmallow Cokes. 

April Ryan of Seattle wrestles with the topic of humor.

SHARING STORIES is a weekly column for and about the 50 plus crowd living in the Puget Sound region. Send your stories and photos to ariele@comcast.net. Tell local or personal stories; discuss concerns around aging and other issues; share solutions, good luck, and reasons to celebrate; poems are fine too. Pieces may be edited or excerpted. We reserve the right to select among pieces. Photos are always a plus and a one-sentence bio is requested (where you live, maybe age or career, retired status, etc.).
 

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