Go on, Have a laugh.
I saw an elderly man laughing until he could no longer see through his tear filled eyes.
I looked around but could not see anything to laugh at. He was among a few friends and they too were laughing as much as the man. It became obvious that he was reliving some hilarious moment and sharing it with these people.
I often think back to the times that relations of mine were going through similar experiences and although we children were laughing it wasn’t at the stories so much as seeing the adults laughing in the way that they were.
The funny thing about this is that it was usually at a funeral and many of the stories were about the person whose funeral we were at. What a shame that this person who had gone had been such an interesting person and yet we didn’t know it whilst they were here.
One of my Uncles was the cause of many laughs for the things that he did when he was young. He was a farm labourer and full of energy and devilment. It was other relations that told us what he got up to and strangely enough it was in his presence. He never contradicted or prompted them but he enjoyed the re-telling of his exploits as much as everybody else.
The story of when he was leading a young bull to another farm and the trek took him past his front door. He decided that he would take advantage of the situation and tied the bull to a lamp post whilst he popped in and Gran made him a cup of tea. Just as he was about to leave a knock came at the door and a neighbour told him that the bull had got away and was last seen heading down the street. Uncle went in hot pursuit and eventually came upon the runaway in the side street. Just as he was about to grab the rope that hung from the bulls nose ring, a lady came out of her house and (as they did in those days) shook a tablecloth to get rid of the crumbs. Away went bull with Uncle again in hot pursuit. Visions of Benny Hills end of programme now come to mind because, during the chase more and more people joined in until there were about a dozen pursuers. Uncle was shouting to go around the animal to cut it off but who was going to face this bovine battering ram? Apparently, no-one. As far as I remember the story, the police eventually cornered the runaway with a borrowed tractor. End of sneaked tea breaks for uncle and peace for the neighbourhood.
Sometimes I believe that we only do comical things in our younger life so that we can reminisce when we get older and cheer ourselves up.
I think one of the greatest sounds ever heard is the sound of good honest laughter.
The good old “Belly Laugh”. It’s infectious too. It is almost impossible to stay grim when you are amongst people having such a good laugh. It’s good for you too so they say and I know, I always feel good afterwards.
I often wonder if there are statistics for the degrees of laughter at various ages throughout our lives. They say we get grumpy when we get older but that is a generalisation and we all know generalisations are a lie. I haven’t had a good “Belly Laugh” for a while now but I certainly won’t give in to the Grumpy theory. When I find something funny or if I get talked about for the comical things I did when I was younger, I want to be there to share it, just like good old uncle.