Tuesday, May 03, 2005

My vegan-hippie-nudist-biker parents

Let me start by saying I had a very normal and happy childhood. Seriously. We were close with a lot of aunts and uncles and cousins. We all got together on holidays & birthdays. We still get together and play Trivial Pursuit and have cook outs. Growing up, we were so the "Normal" family. Mom stayed home with us, and dad worked in a steel mill. (still does) We weren't perfect. We had money problems, I smoked too much pot, and my brother skipped a lot of school. But we were happy. We got along. When I reached high school, something happened to my parents. My mom went back to work, and my dad, since he got home form work at the same time we got home from school, became the 'home' parent. He cooked dinner and took care of the pets and stuff. However, at first, my any dinner my dad cooked was something he could throw into a deep fryer, or a variation of Hamburger Helper. He got better and started making these gourmet casseroles and fancy dishes. Now, my parents have always been bikers. To this day, my mother is still the only over 50, overweight female riding a NightHawk in our small town (A fact my friends never failed to remind me of). Anyway, the changes didn't become severe until my brother and I mover out on our own. First, they discovered a Nudist Colony. Now, my folks are both plus-sized people. But apparently they people that also go their are not the Hollywood version of nudists. So my brother and I lived with it. It was like...."Oh well, mom & dad are having a mid-life crisis. They'll get over it" Not a chance. 2 years ago, my brother shot his first deer. (Actually I think it was a just a Great Dane or something.....that thing was puny) I'd shot my first deer when I was 18, but I made sure not to brag to my 'sensitive' parents about it. Jim couldn't keep his big mouth shut about his, though. So my parents decided it was so wrong to kill animals to eat. Hence, instant vegetarians. Not only instant, but extreme, too. They got rid of every animal product in their house. Leather and all. (My father died a little on the day he turned over his well-loved leather jacket. But it found a good home.....with me!) Anyway, so now my parents have eschewed all variations of meat & eggs. They're so fanatical about it that they've started to lean toward the sun light some days. Not only that, but they also take great pleasure in telling everyone else what's in the food they eat. I really don't care how chickens are treated at the farm, I just know I want chicken nuggets, damn it. So that's their story. Normal meat loving people gone wrong. God save them.

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