Do you have any interesting relatives?

[Dreamer_D]

Of course you do. Got a story to share?

Here is mine, it is about my uncle. He is a really interesting guy

When my grandfather was terminally ill, my grandparents moved into the upper floor of my uncle and aunt''s large house. They had their own bathroom and kitchen up there, but the apartment is connected to the main house. My grandfather passed a year and a half ago, and this Christmas the family was all talking to my 80 year old grandmother about getting a pet to keep her company.

Me, my husband, and my mom all thought she should get a dog. And she thought it was a good idea too! She had dogs in the past and loved them. But of course, she lives in my uncle''s house, so she would need his approval.

So at a family dinner, my grandmother says, "Son, I am thinking about getting a dog!"

And he says, "No, that''s too much work. You need a nice pet that is very low maintenance. I''ve been thinking about it, and you can either have a cat... or a reptile."

That was my grandmother''s face.

Who thinks their 80 year old mother wants a snake for a pet?? Only my uncle. He was dead serious. When we started laughing he started singing the praises of reptiles as pets. We have been laughing about this for months.

 

[vip0802]

Date: 3/22/2010 2:34:28 AM
Author:dreamer_d

I''ve been thinking about it, and you can either have a cat... or a reptile.''

That was my grandmother''s face.

LOL! that would''ve been my face too!

definitely an interesting uncle

 

[vip0802]

i have a good story!

my uncle always believed that his dreams foresaw the future. now our family isn''t overly superstitious, so we would just smile and go along with whatever he had to say. one night he had a dream that the breaks went out on the car, and got into a terrible accident with his kids in it. so the next morning, he refused to use it and took the kids to school and went to work on the bus. later that day, he got a call saying that his car had run down their driveway (it was very steep) and onto the street which caused an accident. fortunately, no one was hurt but apparently his e-brake had malfunctioned.

from what i heard, (this happened years ago when i was just a wee little one) most of my family were a bit shaken up by it, but brushed it off as a coincidence.

a couple of years later, my twin cousins (my uncle''s daughters) came home from school with a note. it was from a casting agent who was interested in them for a part in a John Landis/Steven Spielberg movie called Twilight Zone: The Movie.

at the time my family had no idea who they were, but i guess they were really serious because Steven Spielberg actually came to their house! SS was especially interested since he needed to cast two young Vietnamese sisters, and at the time, my cousins happened to be the only Vietnamese twin girls in the LA area. SS and John Landis apparently paid my aunt and uncle some cash for their permission, and took the whole family out to visit the set. my cousins actually remember running around, playing with the fake tree and rock props, and meeting Vic Morrow.

some days later, my uncle had stated that he was feeling rather uncomfortable about the whole movie thing and later that night, had a bad dream. he never really told the details of the dream, but my aunt said he was extremely adamant about not letting my cousins do it. in the end, John Landis called and said that he decided to use two other girls instead.

anyway, for those who don''t know about the movie, it''s probably best known for the helicopter accident that killed Vic Morrow and the two young girls during filming.

most people would say that it was all coincidence or just plain luck, but our family never questioned my uncle''s dreams after that!

 

[perry]

Of course I have interesting relatives.... I believe everyone does.

The question is are you so tuned out to what your relatives do (or think) that you notice?


Perry

 

[CasaBlanca]

Date: 3/22/2010 5:29:53 AM
Author: vip0802

anyway, for those who don''t know about the movie, it''s probably best known for the helicopter accident that killed Vic Morrow and the two young girls during filming.

most people would say that it was all coincidence or just plain luck, but our family never questioned my uncle''s dreams after that!

WOW!

 

[charbie]

we all must have the "crazy uncle."

my mom''s older brother is very interesting. he was a hippy to the letter, and still maintains some of those characteristics. when he was around 30 yrs old, he got into a bicycle accident. he hit a median in the road, went head over handlebars, and landed in a coma for 10 days. he didn''t come out of the coma very well, and was extremely aggitated, so he tore out his trach. then he didn''t take his meds correctly, so never fully recovered. so now he has a very raspy voice and has to take long breaths before he can speak.

that''s not the really interesting part tho. being a hippy- he has some crazy crazy stories. he used to drop acid, leave school, and go to the zoo. his stories from those days just crack me up. he ran away when he was 15 and biked all up and down the east coast. he then came home, and left again when he was 17 or 18 and hitched a ride in a van across the country to california to avoid getting drafted. he doesn''t remember much of it due to the drugs...but man some of his colorful stories are just crazy.

so now he is in his late 50''s, has a long ponytail, and goes to the market 3 days a week to get the leftover foods the farmers are going to throw away. he lives basically off the land, has raised chickens in a lot next to his downtown apartment, and overall is that relative i always have to prepare others to meet. and i love him to death!

 

[lilyfoot]

vip0802, those are cool stories!

 

[Karl_K]

Date: 3/22/2010 10:00:21 AM
Author: charbie
we all must have the ''crazy uncle.''

In my family I am the eccentric uncle lol

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 3/22/2010 11:43:05 AM
Author: Karl_K

Date: 3/22/2010 10:00:21 AM
Author: charbie
we all must have the ''crazy uncle.''

In my family I am the eccentric uncle lol

Ditto here, I am also considered to be rather eccentric!

 

[Haven]

I actually can't think of one relative who *isn't* interesting.

Where to begin?

My father's parents (divorced after 55 years) after their 42 year-old son died of a brain tumor. Then, my grandmother moved to a huge plot of land in the middle of nowhere Nevada, opened up a side-of-the-road antiques shop (and by "antiques" I mean "junk") met and fell in love with her neighbor Stormy Knight, who was a gajillion years old at the time and liked to build houses for his "pets", and they raised dogs and donkeys together on their land. And sold junk.

Shortly after Stormy Knight and my grandmother fell in love, my grandfather moved from Florida to Nevada to live with them because my aunt would no longer allow him to stay with her. (She's another story.) The three of them lived together, selling their junk, until Stormy sadly died a few years later. At which point, my grandparents just got back together again. (After so many years, what's the point of breaking up, right?)

This is the same grandfather who showed up to my very formal wedding wearing a war veterans baseball cap, a t-shirt, and slacks. He told me "You look so beautiful that I want to look just like you when I'm buried. I'm going to put a picture of you in my hope chest and tell them to make me look just like you." He's not *really* senile, just bizarre.

He also told me to make sure that my new husband doesn't make the same mistake he made on his honeymoon by getting his you-know-what stuck in his zipper. That "really soured things for a bit," as he said.

Oh, the stories are endless, really.

My aunt, who has blazing red hair (think of the trolls from the 80s) thick-rimmed glasses, and speaks through her teeth, yeah--that one--she was allowed to carry a cake cutting set with her on the flight from FL to IL when she came in for our wedding. She not only looks like someone to be feared, she sounds scary, too. It's what happens when you talk through your teeth. She said that she just asked really nicely and they let her carry the knife and server set onto the plane. Oh, goody. That's just . . . lovely. (Not that I didn't appreciate the gift.)

My father's brother, may he rest in peace, once stole our family van after staying with us for a week, and drove it from Chicago to LA. Something in the van broke along the way, which he fixed, and then sent my father the bill and an angry letter about how he doesn't take proper care of his vehicles. They didn't speak for years after that, but the letters demanding payment for the car repair kept coming for quite a while.

As for my own childhood, where to start? Just imagine this: a very white, very middle class, very homogeneous suburb of Chicago where everyone drives similar cars and shops at the mall and basically looks the same.

Then there was my family. My mom wore long flowy things all the time (she calls them "shmatas") and packed things like tofu bars and polenta in my lunch bag, which wasn't a lunch bag at all but a reusable tin because paper bags were wasteful. I wore fake Birkenstocks as a child year round, no Keds or, you know, closed-toes shoes for our family. My winter coats looked more like giant blankets with arms in them, and they were woven by indigenous peoples from different places in the world. When my friends were dancing to New Kids on the Block at the school talent show I was singing Joni Mitchell's "The Circle Game" accompanied by my father on the guitar. Our house filled up on the weekends with people from various walks of life--academics, political activists, old friends traveling through Chicago on a road trip--who talked and argued for hours over a variety of things, ate a lot of fondue and other weird food, and rounded out the evenings by pulling out their instruments and singing folk songs until all hours of the night.

We were *so* the weird family stuck in middle class suburbia.

I loved it, though.

 

[Haven]

Oh my gosh, I''m sorry for the novella.

I quite like talking about my bizarre family, as you can tell. They''re strange, but they''re mine.

 

[lilyfoot]

Date: 3/22/2010 10:00:21 AM
Author: charbie
we all must have the ''crazy uncle.''

I too have a crazy uncle .. but not in a good, or funny way

 

[rainwood]

Haven, the story about your paternal grandparents is now one of my all-time PS favorites. I love it!

 

[Lynnie]

My mom''s cousin...
Extremely hippy-ish. He gave his daughter the middle name Reefer.
When I was young, we were playing in his basement. He had a huge green metal machine. I asked what it was, and he replied "Shh.. that''s my secret money maker". In my mind, it was a machine that actually printed money.
Fast forward 10 years. Cousin gets busted for manufacturing and selling gun silencers

, and gets locked up for 15 years. I finally found out what that machine really was!

Haven, I love your story.

 

[vespergirl]

My most interesting relative is my maternal great-grandmother Anna from Croatia. She was her island''s baker (she owned the only bakery where everyone got their bread) and during WWI, she was also selling coffee and tobacco from her bakery on the black market.

The police got a tip on her black market activities, and told her that if she just surrendered the goods, they wouldn''t take her to jail (her husband was off gambling in America, and she had 9 children that she was supporting). She continued to deny having contraband, but they turned the place upside down, found it, and took her to jail.

Well, they were only able to keep her detained for one night, because the townspeople rioted outside the police station the next morning when they found the bakery closed and there was no bread to be bought.

I believe that she was let off with just a fine.

According to my grandmother, who was her youngest, she was a terrible mother (mean, strict & unloving) but a great businesswoman. I guess it takes all kinds ...

 

[jewelz617]

I''m kind of the crazy relative. I have a daughter named Marley and 3 iguanas.

BUT I''d have to say my craziest Uncle (God bless him!) was my uncle Charlie. Charlie had a really sick sense of humor. When he was diagnosed with cancer, unknown to any of us, he recorded a video...

So at his funeral, they wheeled the casket down to the pulpit and everyone read their nice words about how funny he was, and what a good life he''d had... and then two of the choir singers brought out a projection screen.

Up pops Charlie over his own casket. He starts looking around and going "Hey everyone! What''s going on? Hey! HEY! What am I doing in there? You guys gotta wake me up! CHARLIE YOU LAZY TURD!!!"

Oh. My. Gosh.

Then he proceeded to give a really touching talk about our family and memories. It was kind of awesome.

 

[OUpearlgirl]

My grandmother is a pack rat. She remarried several years after my grandfather died. After the wedding she moved in with the new hubby. She kept her old house, which is still 90% furnished. It''s filled to the brim in all of the closets with clothes from the 50''s, 60''s, and 70''s. She has drawers and drawers filled with expired coupons. Magazine piles stacked to the knee. She goes to estate sales and buys MORE crap to fill her two houses with.

Her garage was a thing of mystery while we were kids. For at least the last 30 years, no car has parked in there. My mom''s carriage when she was a baby is still in there, complete with broken wheels. Broken old furniture, cracked lamps, all kinds of junk can be found in there. We weren''t allowed to go in because our parents were afraid of snakes, mice, or us falling. One summer, we came to help her clean it out. We spent 2 days going through it, taking everything that was no longer useful to the curb. There was SO MUCH TRASH! Her neighbor called us the next day and told us that Grandma had pulled everything from the curb back to the garage.

Did I mention that this pack rat with two houses, two utility bills, and two phone lines is a REALTOR?

 

[doodle]

My great-grandmother drove her car into the baptismal pool of a church because she believed it needed to be blessed. One of my uncles used to own a gym in town where several of my aunts and my mom also worked for a while--he once put a fake leg sticking out from under his desk in his office, hid in a supply closet, and let out a blood-curdling scream, so when my aunt came in, she thought he had been murdered. My grandmother got mad enough at my grandfather once that she pushed the washing machine down a flight of stairs at him, then she refused to speak to him for weeks because she had to take all the clothes to the laundromat. The same grandmother, who normally does NOT drink, got plastered at my parents'' wedding, so she was sitting on the piano singing while the priest played. I could go on and on--I have a family full of crazies, haha!

 

[sunnyd]

Date: 3/22/2010 3:50:07 PM
Author: doodle
My great-grandmother drove her car into the baptismal pool of a church because she believed it needed to be blessed.

Doodle that cracked me up!!! Sounds like a sitcom or something. LOL!

 

[elrohwen]

My mom's side of the family is certainly interesting, but in a passive-aggressive, leaving their baby-mommas, making tons of cash in Russia probably through illegal channels kinda way. No funny stories about them really.

DH's aunt and uncle are a trip. They're very hippy dippy and while he and his mom complain about them, I think they're fun! I wouldn't want to see them more than once a year, but they're a funny kind of kooky.

 

[radiantquest]

I have two, and the both died, what are the chances??

First is my uncle. Uncle John, very cool. BTW his last name was Wayne. He was very well educated. He lived in a house that is like a museum. Every time I went there I was in awe of the cool stuff he had. I was fairly young when he died so I do not know all the specifics, but he went to places like Africa and India to teach. I cant remeber what he taught though. He had a strange sense of style. He had sculptures and masks from all over and he had these two life size stuffed dolls. In all honesty his stuff was creepy and cool at the same time. Did not have one TV in the whole house. Died of AIDS

The other one is my moms ex fiance. He was also very smart and way ahead of his time. This was when CDs had just come out and he was already talking about cell phones and satellite TV. It was crazy when it really happened. I remeber this one statement very clearly I was young and it was 1989 or so and he was talking about how we would be able to pause TV and then watch shows whenever we wanted. This was unheard of in our circles at the time. He would also play funny tricks, like back then my mother smoked and he opened them turned all her cigarettes upside down and then put the package back together without even a single flaw. He also had this huge gold black onyx ring that he wore and not matter what it always was broken. He would buy a new one and within weeks it the onyx would be broken. The oddest and most interesting person that I ever knew. He was electricuted to death my arcing electricity.

 

[packrat]

Dangit. No interesting relatives but I like everyone else''s stories! Well..I have an Uncle (why is it always the Uncles??), I think he''s Great Uncle..anyway, super intelligent guy, and years ago, he came up w/some type of formula for computers or something, and it had to do w/how they design freeways/bypasses and such..like in the big cities, how they have 97 different roads and they seem to all be connected and stacked on top of each other..anyway, it was some revolutionary thing and he was offered millions for the formula and he turned them down and gave it to them for free.

 

[PumpkinPie]

Date: 3/22/2010 9:34:57 AM
Author: CasaBlanca

Date: 3/22/2010 5:29:53 AM

Author: vip0802


anyway, for those who don''t know about the movie, it''s probably best known for the helicopter accident that killed Vic Morrow and the two young girls during filming.

most people would say that it was all coincidence or just plain luck, but our family never questioned my uncle''s dreams after that!

WOW!

I love stories like this - so freaky!

 

[PumpkinPie]

Date: 3/22/2010 11:43:05 AM
Author: Karl_K

Date: 3/22/2010 10:00:21 AM

Author: charbie

we all must have the ''crazy uncle.''

In my family I am the eccentric uncle lol

In that case, I''d love to meet you Karl! I need some more good stories

 

[PumpkinPie]

Date: 3/22/2010 3:50:07 PM
Author: doodle
My great-grandmother drove her car into the baptismal pool of a church because she believed it needed to be blessed. One of my uncles used to own a gym in town where several of my aunts and my mom also worked for a while--he once put a fake leg sticking out from under his desk in his office, hid in a supply closet, and let out a blood-curdling scream, so when my aunt came in, she thought he had been murdered. My grandmother got mad enough at my grandfather once that she pushed the washing machine down a flight of stairs at him, then she refused to speak to him for weeks because she had to take all the clothes to the laundromat. The same grandmother, who normally does NOT drink, got plastered at my parents'' wedding, so she was sitting on the piano singing while the priest played. I could go on and on--I have a family full of crazies, haha!

wow doodle - can I come visit?

 

[April20]

I have an aunt that used to dress up in costume to go vote. One year she went as a chicken (probably 1986 or so). She saved the "eggs" that pantyhose used to come in and when she got into the voting booth, started clucking and dropping eggs......

Then one summer the family went to Canada for vacation. She was meeting them up there (driving across the border) and decided to go in costume. So she dresses herself up as a bag lady- crazy clothes, blacks out her two front teeth- and when she gets to the border- Canada doesn''t want to let her in. Why the heck she felt the need to dress up for this event, I have no idea. It''s just what she does!

 

[OUpearlgirl]

Date: 3/22/2010 8:19:31 PM
Author: April20
I have an aunt that used to dress up in costume to go vote. One year she went as a chicken (probably 1986 or so). She saved the ''eggs'' that pantyhose used to come in and when she got into the voting booth, started clucking and dropping eggs......


Then one summer the family went to Canada for vacation. She was meeting them up there (driving across the border) and decided to go in costume. So she dresses herself up as a bag lady- crazy clothes, blacks out her two front teeth- and when she gets to the border- Canada doesn''t want to let her in. Why the heck she felt the need to dress up for this event, I have no idea. It''s just what she does!

Hahahahah!!

 

[Irishgrrrl]

Ohhh, yes . . . I have some VERY interesting relatives! Time to grace you all with my glass eye story:

My Mom is now retired, but she worked for many years in the maintenance department of our local Housing Authority. Many of the Housing Authority''s tenants were elderly people, many of whom were very eccentric and would call my Mom with the craziest problems! Well, my Grandfather (my Mom''s father, who has since passed away), LOVED to mess with my Mom while she was at work! He would often call her, pretending to be one of her tenants (disguising his voice, of course), and complaining of some weird problem with his apartment.

Well, most of the staff at my Mom''s office were used to this, and they really got a kick out of my Pappy and his antics! One of my Mom''s good friends at work (we''ll call her "C") answered the phone one day. There was an elderly gentleman on the other end of the line, complaining that he had dropped his glass eye down the drain of his sink. Well, C just KNEW it was my Pappy, calling to mess with them again! So, C says "Well, can you SEE where it''s at???" Of course, she''s snickering the whole time. Turns out, it really was one of their tenants, and he really had dropped his glass eye down the drain!!!

Needless to say, my Pappy never let C and my Mom hear the end of that!!!

 

[Bella_mezzo]

wow, my interesting relatives are nowhere near this interesting!

And Haven, I LOVE your family stories!!!

 

[yssie]

Date: 3/22/2010 10:34:14 PM
Author: Bella_mezzo
wow, my interesting relatives are nowhere near this interesting!

And Haven, I LOVE your family stories!!!

Seriously bella - my family is apparently very tame too

These are hilarious