Family Culture

My family has always had a strong family culture. Perhaps this is, in part, because we were raised overseas. My father was an officer in the American Army but, because both my parents were from Canada, being in the military was their opportunity to see the world. We lived in Taiwan for 4 years and Belgium for 3. My parents always chose to live on the economy rather than in military housing on base. I'm sure there were lots of reasons for this choice, but part of it most likely was their desire to emmerse themselves in these different cultures as well as the limited size of base houses. Being a family of 7 (small in my neighborhood) made it a little difficult to fit into a typical base house.

The result of living on the economy was that we played mostly with each other. It was too far for friends to come over very often. So, playing in the streets and neighbors yards until well after dark was only a fantasy for us. And, since we didn't have American television, there was little sense in attempting to watch T.V. In Belgium, there were 1/2 hour radio programs in English that came on every weeknight, and we gathered around the radio like fallbacks to the 50's in the evening to listen for that half an hour. It was amazing, the stories that could be told with sound effects. Most people younger than 50 have never had this experience, and I'm thankful that I have.

We also read a lot. We'd sit around in the evenings, each of us with a book in hand, and read for entertainment. When a family member read a funny part, they'd yell, "Listen to this!" and everyone would lay down their books momentarily to hear this part re-read outloud. There'd be lots of, "I want to read that book next" or "What else has that guy written" or "Did you get that book from the library". Lots of "phrases" that our family uses are a result of these years and things that my siblings read aloud to us as a family.

The other thing we did quite often was go to movies as a family. On Saturday mornings, there were matinees at the base theater (which was very cheap entertainment, probably subsidized by the military) and the youngest of us would go to see these - lots of Elvis Presley, John Wayne, and Walt Disney. And, once every couple of months, our family would all attend, together, a movie. Back then, there were lots of family movies, and we enjoyed lots of them as a family. On the long drive home, we'd talk about the movie and "catch phrases" would be repeated over and over. Sometimes, we'd recall a song from the movie and sing it, different family members filling in different parts until we had the whole thing. In any case, there are phrases that we use now, as a family, that no one other than a Hunt would ever understand. Things like, "You're being a Mommy Mushroom" or "Stop making that noise with your nose...what noise? I'm just breathing...well, STOP IT!!" or "Hey, little goldfish, where are you going to?" became common around our home.

There's an old joke about a new inmate in a prison. After lights are out at night, from somewhere down the darkened hallway, a voice yells, "#69", followed by peels of laughter by all the inmates. Then, someone yells out, "#34", again, followed by laughter. This continues with yells of "72" and "48" and, finally, one voice yells out, "#22". No one laughs. The same voice yells out again, "56". Still no laughter. The new inmate, stumped by this behavior, asks his cellmate what's going on.

"Well," the cellmate explains, "we've got a jokebook in the bathroom. It's the only reading material we have. Everyone's memorized all the jokes, so we don't tell the joke anymore, we just yell the numbers. Everyone thinks about the joke and laughs."

"So why didn't they laugh at those last two?" the new guy asks.

"Oh, that?" his friend responds. "That guy never could tell a joke."

My family's sort of like this. We've shared the same jokes for so long that, now, we don't even tell the joke. We skip right to the punchline.

If you're ever around us and you hear remarks that don't make a bit of sense, just laugh along. It's probably at least as funny as #34, if you only knew what it meant.