Monday, August 24, 2009

Slow and Odd

When Old Dog and I were dating, I lived in St. Paul and he lived here in Ohio. On weekends when we couldn’t figure out a way to get together, Old Dog would go visit my Dad on Sunday afternoons. He’d sit on the couch and listen to Dad reminisce about serving in Afghanistan and Burma during WWII, about his years wheeling and dealing real estate, about growing up in western Kentucky coal country.

By the time I started making plans to move back to Dayton, Dad knew Old Dog pretty well. Since Dad loathed my first two husbands, I was nervous about hearing the review, but I respected his judgment enough to ask anyway.

“He’s a good man,” Dad said. “He’ll take care of you.”

As I breathed a sigh of relief, Dad said, “He’s slow, though.”

“Slow?”

Dad nodded. “You’ll have to slow yourself down for him.”

Since Dad had the fastest Southern drawl ever clocked, and Old Dog’s hearing is pretty damaged from years of loud factory machines, I knew where this came from. I couldn’t resist sharing Dad’s critique with him, though.

“Slow?” he said, a grin spreading across his face.

I laughed. It’s hard to resist a man who can hear something like this and think it’s funny.

“Do you want to hear what he said about you?” he said.

My grin faded. I looked at him warily. “What?”

“He said, ‘Jeanne’s intelligent. She’s the smartest of all my kids. But I’ll warn you – she’s odd.’”

Odd? Moi?

A word of advice: Don’t ever let your dad play Cupid.

17 comments:

  1. My mother told me it was good that I was going to marry my husband because he would "keep the church in the middle". Whatever.

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  2. What a delightful story to start the week...one of two very lucky men!

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  3. My hubby is the only guy my parents ever approved of, and they were slow and odd themselves, lol, so cute!

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  4. My boyfriends and husband were all afraid of my dad...looking back, maybe that should have been a red flag...

    I think Old dog is a pretty cool dude for hanging out with your dad. of course, if he is slow, he probably didn't have a lot of friends....

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  5. Superb story, a real delight to read. Thanks.

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  6. That's a cute story. Old Dog has to be given credit for hanging out with your Dad alone.
    Luckily, my parents couldn't give my DH any advice about me, because they didn't speak French and he doesn't speak English.

    Are you "odd"?

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  7. Take the 'odd' as a compliment (like you have a choice!)
    With me, my Mum has always said that I was 'always a little bit different'. And I guess for that, you could read 'odd'...

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  8. Take it from someone who is "odd", it is a good thing!

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  9. This is so funny, cute and endearing all rolled up together!

    My Dad told my husband...
    "Son, make sure she is on your side when you go into battle!"

    Now that's useful, huh?

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  10. How nice that was that he wanted to spend that time with your Dad.

    I think your Dad was right. . .he's a good man!

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  11. That is hilarious. I can't wait to meet Old Dog and you. He can be slow and you can be odd. What should I be?

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  12. Brilliant story.

    I love what your Dad said about you.

    Love Renee xoxo

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  13. Ii can't imagine the nerd I would be with if my dad set me up. Yikes

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  14. When I visited Alabama once for a week-end(visiting friends that had moved there from Michigan), the people talked so slow, I found myself wanting to finish their sentences for them!
    Do you know the difference between odd and eccentric- about a million dollars!

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  15. ....and if he does, don't ask to hear what he said :)))

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  16. Hahahaha. That is so funny. I loved this post.

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  17. So slow married odd and they lived kinda happily ever after.. interesting. Great story, I really enjoyed it:)

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