It got me thinking about the Family Home Evening meetings I had when I was a kid. My parents assigned duties to my three older sisters and I to help us participate in the meeting some way. However, during the years when I was too young to do anything as elaborate as giving a lesson or whipping up a snack, I was responsilbe for performing two important tasks at FHE, and I took both of them very seriously:
1. Calling Roll: At each meeting I was in charge of calling roll - Dad... ("Here!"), Mom... ("Here!"), Julie... ("Here!"), Emily... ("Here!"), Amy... ("Here!"), Brian... "Here!", Nelson... (silence, since Nelson was a dog).
2. Presenting the latest chapter of my ongoing flannel-board saga: The genesis of the flannel-board story predates my ability to remember, so I don't know how I came up with this particular storyline, but every week for years I would present the on-going adventures of The Witch. It was truly an epic tale and every single chapter ended with the same cliffhanger catchphrase: "The Witch went through the exit sign!" I don't know how I came up with that line and I even remember realizing after a few years that my big catchphrase didn't make any sense, but by then it was too late. The catchphrase stuck and The Witch inevitably had to travel through the exit sign at the conclusion of each chapter."The Witch went through the exit sign" turned out to be quite a useful phrase in other situations. Every night at family dinner my dad had a rule that no one could be excused from the table unless they had participated in the dinnertime conversation, so there were many times when I would get up to leave the table, my dad would say that I couldn't leave until I had added something to the conversation, and I would whip out a trusty old "The Witch went through the exit sign," and I'd be good to go.
The phrase was an inside joke in our family for years, but I had almost forgotten all about it until last night, so maybe now it will make a comeback. Who knows - maybe it will end up saving me some day:
Hypothetical situation: Brian is taking his final oral exams to become a doctoral candidate.
Faculty Member 1: Describe the use of imitatio in the later motets of Monteverdi.
Brian: Uhhhhh... The Witch went through the exit sign?
Faculty Members 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5: Brilliant! What a bold and unprecedented analysis of
Monteverdi! Full marks!
I'd like to thank you all for joining me for the lastest chapter in the ongoing saga of my blog. Until next time, "The Witch went through the exit sign."
5 comments:
Funny, I always thought "The Witch went through the exit sign" was your weekly contribution to "Family Business". Perhaps that was it's gestation? PS- the roll call portion reminds me of when the Gilmore Girls attend the interactive mural presentation in the Stars Hollow Museum and the mute boy gets the spotlight whenever he might have had something to say...love it!
I wish I would have had something that brilliant to say at my masters orals! :)
Just seeing your title caused me to chuckle. I remember the same as Emily as it being part of family business. And you did not miss a week with this announcement. It was funny to me every time.
Do you remember the flannel board story of a boy who told a lie and it got bigger and bigger and was a big, furry piece of material with long tentacles until he told the truth?? Anyway, I remember that one and we just rediscovered it when I was looking for a lesson to give for FHE when we were at the frogs over the summer. Good times.
I really hope to hear you say this in person soon (when we least expect it, of course)!
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