Friday, December 31, 2010

Limo for BooBoo


Limo For BooBoo

My niece was coming to town.

She had been living in Los Angeles for a couple of years and was coming back to South Florida for Thanksgiving.  She was bringing her just acquired fiancé, who none of us had met yet. 

Her mother brother and father were going to be picking them up at the airport and we would all be together for Thanksgiving dinner, traditionally cooked by her father, he makes the best turkey in the family.

We rotate family dinners for important holidays such as Thanksgiving, Passover, Break the Fast, etc.

I was just sitting there when an interesting idea came to me.

I remembered a picture of my niece when she was probably 18 months or so, in blue pajamas, with curly back ringlets around her hair, looking up at the camera.  Why not make this a poster-sized picture for her family to hold up at the airport so she could find them easily in the waiting crowd.

Oddly, her mother thought it was a great idea and agreed to do it.

She gave me the picture; I scanned it into the computer and sent the image off to a company that would make me a poster-sized print.

A week later the picture arrived.  My nephew and I attached it to some poster board.  It stood about 3 feet tall.

I then wrote on it: “Limo for BooBoo”.

BooBoo is an affectionate term her mother and father use for her.  Her cousins (my grandchildren) and children of friends have adopted it as her name as well.  “Aunt BooBoo” is what she is called by all of them.

The day of arrival came.

BooBoo’s mother, poster in hand stood in the crowd of people waiting for people to come out of the gates, making their way to baggage claim.

People noticed the poster.  They looked around expecting a young child to be the intended person, accompanied by a parent.

BooBoo , fiancé in tow, emerged from the gate passageway., she looked around for her parents.  My nephew was ready with his camera.
She spotted the poster.

Now for those of you familiar with the Yearbook Debacle story, this is the same niece who embarrassed easily.

Not this time, she starting laughing so hard she doubled over. We have the picture to prove it.

Her fiancé was unsure what was going on since he didn’t recognize the picture or the term BooBoo. He didn’t know why she was laughing so hard.  When she explained, he joined in the laughter.

The poster was a success, BooBoo was found and everyone had a good laugh about it.  I think my niece kept the poster.

On Thanksgiving, there was BooBoo, her parents, her brother, her fiancé, me, my wife, my son, my daughter, her husband and toddler son, my sister, her husband and my mother and my wife’s father, BooBoo’s grandfather..

The stage was set.

Mark, BooBoo’s fiancé and now husband, had never met any of us before.  We are a loud Jewish Family.  Mark comes from an Italian family from Pittsburgh.  We didn’t know what would happen.  Would this end the engagement?  Would he find us too crazy?

By the end of the meal, Mark declared he felt he had entered “Boca/Delray” from a Seinfeld episode.  He loved it.  It reminded him of his family dinners in Pittsburgh. 

He laughed at the various antics and stories he heard, and was even able to get some of the Yiddish words my mother used to describe various people in her condo. 

Mark worked in the movie industry so he had some knowledge of various demeaning Yiddish terms like Schmuck.  We told him to get Spielberg to give him a lesson when he returned to Los Angeles.

We seemed to make a favorable impression on Mark and he on us.  In short, the dinner was a success and Mark is part of the family.

He and BooBoo are integral parts of the Dreyfuss Fantasy Football league started about 4 years ago.  His trash talking is legendary and we all look forward to his visits with BooBoo.


2 comments:

  1. This is Mark, the fiance-turned-hubby...

    A few things of note for the record:

    Unc Shell refers to my acquisition, like it was a baseball trade. Turns out, I was a free agent and decided to enter into this familial relationship. No trade happened. Nobody was "acquired". It was free will.

    Also...

    When he says he was "just sitting there" and had an idea, is he referring to sitting on the toilet? Ambiguous at best.

    Stop wondering what happened - I DID find you extremely crazy, but, somehow, I pressed on.

    This described dinner DID NOT remind me of dinners in Pittsburgh, but certainly did play like a SEINFELD episode. To think I had ever come across a similar cast of characters is kooky-talk.

    I am appalled at the omission of a key dinner component - when you kept asking your soon-to-be daughter in law, who's from Colombia, if she knew Juan Valdez personally. And you asked her 1,000 times. She politely answered "no" on every occassion and I think she saw the CRAZYWRITINGONTHEWALL. I sure did.

    Keep blogging, Brisket Man!

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  2. I thank you for reminding me of my omissions. I was sure you said your family dinners in Pittsburgh were loud and crazy. I do think your Uncle Dom would fit right in.

    I don't think I asked her 1000 times, maybe 150.

    thanks for the encouragement.

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