Weird Flashback....

I was suddenly reminded today of a kid I went to school with...In the 6th grade, I think, he was a big fan of The Who...And he thought it was the funniest thing in the world to walk to people and prompt them to ask him the question"Who's your favorite group ?" so that he could reply "that's right." and have a hearty chuckle. A VERY hearty chuckle. It was amusing enough, the first of the thousand or so times he did it. Then it got kinda tired.

Mind you, his "prompting" to ask the question was generally him walking up and saying "Ask me, 'who's your favorite group"- so perhaps it would have been funnier more often if he had slipped in into the conversations, or somehow more subtly manipulated the question out of people, but the bluntness kind of killed the joke, I think.

Either way, it was a weird memory. then it triggered another one- I had a Who shirt that I used to wear(from about the same time period actually-it was from their first "Farewell Tour"-I didn't see the show, but my brother did, and he bought me the shirt. It was one of those 3/4 quarter sleeve concert shirts that were all the rage in the late 70's early 80's{this was '82}, but instead of white sleeves, these 3/4 sleeves were BLUE. That's right- BLUE.Pretty kickass, huh ?) But that's not the memory, though the shirt plays a ROLE in the memory(though not a speaking role-it's not THAT type of flashback- I might share some of those with you someday, when you're older.)

Anyway, one day I was hanging around my house in my Who Farewell Tour 3/4 BLUE sleeved concert shirt, and my Mom's cousin came by to visit. She took one look at my shirt and asked my Mother how the hell she could let me wear that shirt. My Mom and I looked at each other, and I could see my Mom scanning the shirt for swears or nudity(my parents had some issues with swears and nudity{as well they should} which resulted in the very funny instance of them refusing to allow me to wear one of the very popular(at the time)- "Grab A Heiney" Heineken beer t-shirts, but instead, bringing home a Grab A Busch T-shirt, which they clearly didn't realize was quite a bit filthier) but there was none to be found.

And then my Mom's cousin pointed to the sleeve(the BLUE 3/4 sleeve) which was adorned with a Union Jack. Then it all became clear- My family is Irish. Irish Catholic. My Mom's cousin was actually born in Ireland, as were all four of my grandparents. I was wearing the flag of the "enemy". Though clearly an enemy in a battle my parents weren't waging.

My Mom calmed her down, and I was allowed to stay clothed, but I have always remembered that moment. Often at very random times. Like now.