Micah sat beside me, riding shotgun, in my van. His three older sisters sat behind us. Someone noticed a sign on a building, read it aloud and we all laughed.
I don’t remember the sign. I remember how tickled my Grands were and their loud laughing, then forced laughs, as if there were a contest for who could laugh longest. Then silence – until Micah asked a question while we were stopped at a traffic light. “Is there an age limit for laughing out loud?”
“What?” said two of Micah’s sisters.
My nine-year-old Grand repeated, “Is there an age limit for laughing out loud?”
I bit my tongue to not say what came to mind. No, everyone can laugh out loud. What made you think that?
“Micah, why’d you say that?” his fourteen-year-old sister asked.
“Well, grown-ups don’t laugh much,” he answered.
“Like who?” Micah named a few names and I admit I was glad he didn’t say mine.
“Grown-ups work more than we do and maybe they just don’t have as much to laugh about,” Micah’s sister said.
Again, silence filled my van. Micah looked out the passenger side window. “But they can laugh loud if they want to?”
“Yes!” All four of us answered.
Micah grinned. “Good,” he said.
Since that day a month ago, I’ve listened and watched. We grown-ups chuckle. We snicker. But I can count on one hand the times I’ve heard adults laugh out loud – even for a few seconds.
One of those times was last week when two friends and I sat in the basement of First United Methodist Church on the monthly food distribution day. I usually stand outside, greet those who drive through the car line and ask the best place in their vehicles to put the boxes of food.
But that day others were outside and I was tired. “Is there anything to do sitting down and not have to think?’ I asked the person in charge. I hoped she’d say there wasn’t and I’d go home.
“Yes, get tea bags ready to give next month.” So, for an hour, Ellen, Jennie, and I opened boxes of 100 teabags and put six teabags in zip-lock bags.
Ellen had worked alone before Jennie and I joined her. She showed us how to lay the tea bags flat and where to put the zip lock bags to keep a running total. Jennie and I determined one of us could open and close the bags and the other could put the teabags in.
Maybe it was because I thought it was faster to not lay the teabags flat or the questioning frown on Ellen’s face or the overwhelming aroma of tea or the flakes of tea that fell on our clothes or that opening zip lock bags isn’t easy. Whatever. We three got our tickle-boxes tuned over and laughed out loud for an hour. Oh, it felt good.
So, Micah, there’s no age limit for laughing out loud. If you’d been there, you’d laughed with us.
Filed under: Grandchildren, Kids Say Funny Things, Quotes | Tagged: age limit, laugh out loud, quote | Leave a comment »
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