House Rules

My Maternal Grandmother, you remember the prankster, raised 6 children. My Mom and her 3 brothers and 2 sisters, of course there was a Grandfather involved too. He just wasn't amusing. A wise man and quite loving but not fun. Sorry Gramps. Save room for me in heaven, okay? They were raised in an era where it was a luxury to have a refrigerator. Can you imagine being without one? Are we a spoiled generation or what? There I go digressing again, ahem.

My Granny was a stickler about her house rules. They weren't all that cumbersome, basic courtesies really. One of her pet peeves was to reach into the fridge and pull out an empty water pitcher. Every morning at breakfast she would remind everyone to fill the water pitcher. She would even go so far as to demonstrate how easy the task was; I can see my Aunts and Uncles rolling their eyes. I knew I came by that honestly.

Without fail every morning when Granny went to drink her first tall, cold glass of water of the day, you guessed it, empty. Not a drop. She would ask at breakfast for the culprit to come forth and as expected silence. She decided to take matters into her own hands. She conducted her research and found that the pitcher was always full to the brim right before she went to bed and empty in the morning. It had to be one of the sons.

She waited for each of her sons to come home that night. My middle Uncle came home around 2 am after being out with his friends drinking. He would stumble into the kitchen, grab the water pitcher, prop himself up on the refrigerator door, drain the contents and place/toss it back in and shut the door. He'd then stagger into his bedroom and fall asleep. Satisfied with her research, Granny formulated her plan and went off to bed. After refilling the pitcher of course.

The following night Granny set and her trap and waited for her son to get home. Sure enough, he came in went straight to the kitchen and reached for the cold water to quench his drunken thirst. Halfway through the pitcher he realized that he was drinking salted water. With a mouthful of water he turned toward the giggling. There was Granny sitting in the dark kitchen watching her prey.

The pitcher was full from that moment on.