My Man Pink
It’s been another year, and I was thinking it would be a good time to share another Dad story. I got kind of caught up inside my own brain for a while, thinking of recent changes in my life, the way Dad’s memory influences me and affects me still. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about how his calling affected my own spirituality, for instance, and the nature of reconciliation and forgiveness.
Honestly, though? This is a blog. It’s a public place for sharing, and all that stuff is stuff I feel I’ve barely begun to figure out. What I’d prefer to do is celebrate the joy of his life, not the pain of his loss. What I’d really like to do is share something fun.
I will tell you how my father taught me that jokes never, ever have to die.
In the early ‘80s, Trivial Pursuit was a huge trendy thing, so I really have no idea how my family ever stumbled across it. But we did, and we embraced it with gusto. A fun game the whole family could play! That wasn’t UNO! (We played A LOT of UNO over the years. We about wore the fur off the cards.) At first we’d play with mixed-age teams, meaning one parent and one child on each team. But my brother is nine years older than me and was legally an adult by the time the game came out, so in short order we figured out the preferred pairing was kids vs. parents. Sure, being young and hip we had certain advantages, but my parents, being old and wily, had their own.
We had our strong and weak categories, which we of course learned to use against each other when selecting the final question. Watching our parents try to tackle an Arts and Entertainment question that focused on anything post-1960 was hilarious! As, I’m sure, was watching my brother and I tackle any professional-sports-based question. One evening, we were having a rousing game. My parents landed on Arts and Entertainment. I am fairly certain it was for a pie wedge, too. My brother and I took turns reading the questions. I can no longer remember whose turn it was to read, but I know that whoever-it-was turned to the other to share the question. We giggled madly. No WAY would they get this. I wish I could remember the exact question but that was nearly 30 years ago. The gist was: “What British band made the album ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’?”
My brother and I grinned. I sat on my hands to keep from clapping them in glee. In my head, I thought “LED ZEPPELIN” over and over again, forming a steady psychic stream of misinformation. No way were they using any hoodoo to get the answer out of my head! Mom and Dad rolled their eyes at each other. They quickly eliminated The Beatles. My brother and I grinned wider. At last my father threw up his hands and said, “Pink Floyd.”
Stunned silence. My brother and I stared at each other. My Dad knew right away he’d gotten it right, because we weren’t openly cackling at his wrong answer. He could not stop crowing about it.
I want to say that this happened no later than 1984 or 1985. For the remaining 25 or so years of his life, my father would NOT let that go. He made Pink Floyd jokes at any opportunity. The default thing to guess for any Trivial Pursuit question that we did not know was Pink Floyd. We gave him a Pink Floyd album as a joke. My brother gave him a Pink Floyd t-shirt as a Christmas gag gift. And my father wore it proudly, even on vacation in Greece. When he opened the box containing the t-shirt, he exclaimed, as he so often found (or made up) reason to: “All right! My man Pink!”
Though I am fairly certain that whatever afterlife there may or may not be doesn’t involve our spirits sitting around and chit-chatting with other deceased persons, there’s a part of me that gets a kick out of the idea of my Dad telling that story to Syd Barrett. Or whoever will listen, frankly. Just like I just told it to you.
Love you and miss you always, Dad. Give my best to Syd.
Check it out! All the way on the right! (Oh, and that’s a statue of Lord Byron or somethin’)
September 19, 2012
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Jen · 
6 Comments
Tags: dad, history, humor · Posted in: family
6 Responses
Gosh that made me cry a bit. Such good memories. I love that you are sharing them.
Aw, thanks Michele!
Awesome, Jen.
Thanks for sharing. Thinking of you around now, just like I always will–you know, when I’m looking through my memories, too.
Thank you, Carly! And I’ve been thinking of you too, as I always do around now. Cheers to our memories, and hugs to you.
What a great story. I love those little family in-jokes. We also have one revolving around Trivial Pursuit.
All the coolest families have Trivial Pursuit jokes!
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