My Grandson's First Joke

It is always interesting and even exciting to see a young girl or boy begin to understand and to laugh at jokes. It shows that he or she is growing and becoming more aware of words and of the world around him.

Once in a restaurant while my grandson, Eric, and I were being hosted to dinner by an older couple, we were sitting at the table having our regular conversations about this and that. Then the lady told a joke. After this I thought it might be in good taste for me to tell a joke.

I told the joke about the man who visited his friends in Texas, and they each told him that everything is big in Texas. While at a restaurant eating with his friends, the man who was visiting ordered a drink of iced tea. The glass was so large that he commented, "Boy, things ARE big in Texas." When the waitress brought the food, he noticed that the helpings were very large. Again he said, "Boy, things ARE big in Texas."

After a while, the man excused himself to go to the bathroom. His friends told him it was down the hall and the third door on the left. Well, on his way he forgot and went into the third door on the right. After a while, his friends were worried about him and went to look for him. They looked in the bathroom, and the man was not there. Then they went to the third door on the right and saw the man who had fallen in the swimming pool and he was crying, "Don't flush it! Don't flush it!"

Well, you and I have heard that joke many times, and we laugh every time. When I told it at the table, the older man and woman laughed, and we went on finishing our meal. After a few seconds, I happened to look at my grandson, and I noticed that his mouth was shut very tightly and he was about to burst out with a sound. He had a smiley smirk on his face, and I knew what had happened. After all the jokes that he had heard us tell, this is the first one that really hit him as funny. He almost fell out of his chair laughing. Even after we left the restaurant, from time to time he would laugh out a little, and I realized that he was remembering the joke.

This was a lot of fun, and now he is aware of many of the jokes he hears. This is all a part of growing up, and I like to see it. If you cannot laugh at jokes, maybe you have not grown up as much as my grandson.