Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Umbrella Joke

My friend and partner Kailey Franz often teases me about needing an umbrella. I made a mistake when she first started by telling her that I have never owned and umbrella and I wouldn't carry one if I had it. It has become a running inside joke...and you should probably be in on it. I grew up in the desert part of Washington State...where the average annual precipitation was about seven-inches. Most of that was in a single January snow storm. I grew up playing baseball, and I don't ever remember having a game rained out. Men and boys just didn't carry umbrellas. We didn't need them. We wouldn't have walked under one if someone next to us had one. It was like carrying a purse or wearing perfume. It just wasn't done. I remember the first time I drove into Texas to go to ACU in September of 1978. It was raining so hard that I really needed my windshield wipers. I thought those were just for pushing the water away after going through a car wash. You can get soaked here in the rain, and I can certainly see the need for having an umbrella...for some people, just not for me. I'll just plod through the rain...unless it's raining hard. Then, I'll dart through the weather as fast as these worn-out old knees will allow until I get to the safety of the car or the building. But, it will always be without an umbrella.

5 comments:

  1. Alot of guys at ACU carry umbrellas.

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  2. Really? What a ridiculous article, get over yourself. Say you're going in for an interview for the "job of a lifetime", wearing your best suit, ready to dazzle the interviewer...it's pouring rain and the closest you can get is across a very large parking lot. You'd NOT use an umbrella? Isn't the first impression a lasting one? Wouldn't you look like an idiot not using it? Let's get real, any person - man or woman - not using an umbrella in a downpour is an idiot! It's not about being "manly" or having your manhood questioned for using one.

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  3. Umbrellas are used to keep you dry when it is raining. This has nothing to do with manhood.
    Any man who refuses to use an umbrella in a downpour because it may not look manly must have
    some issues about his own manhood.

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  4. Yeah.......ISSUES!

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  5. It's a regional thing, that's how he grew up, leave him alone.

    ReplyDelete