Family

Holidays have always been an important time in my family, regardless if we were getting dressed up to go to midnight mass on Christmas Eve or ordering from KFC on Easter (because my gramma was sick of cooking that year...and every year after), we always made incredible memories. Food and laughter seemed to go hand in hand and no one ever failed to get a whole bunch of good pictures.

Wait, did I just write that we always get a bunch of pictures during the holidays? Yeah that’s what I thought. Because I brought a camera to Easter dinner at my aunt’s house last Sunday but it never made it out of my bag.

And neither did anyone else’s after the family arrived. The only photo I saw from this most recent holiday was my aunt posting on Facebook a picture of the beautifully set table that had a caption something like “Ready for all those hungry animals to get here and wolf down in fifteen seconds something it took me 3 hours to cook!”

Or something like that.

But this puts me in a tough spot because I fully intended on using this holiday photo extravaganza to my advantage today. Since the request is literally for a photo of me and a family member, I didn’t want to have to intentionally pick someone randomly. That's why I was just going to go with the excuse that as the most recent holiday it was the "obvious choice" (feel my air quotes).  So what to do?

Why post a completely non-related photo of course!

This is me with my grampa Ed on the day he got his high school diploma.  He fought in World War II and gave up graduating to defend the country instead.  Back in the early part of the new millennium, Massachusetts was the first state to institute Operation Recognition and the program allowed my grampa to get his diploma sixty some-odd years after he originally should have.

It was a cool day but, of course he wasn’t about to get all emotional about it.  He was way too much of a comedian for all that.  So it looks as if he’s in a really contemplative gaze here but it was all a show for the camera.  In fact, I’m surprised he didn’t grab his lapel with his free hand and dramatically toss his chin up just to give the extra punch.  And yes, that is a bucket hat which reads Cape Cod that he's wearing with his suit and tie.

Not to say he wasn’t honored, because he did come thisclose to welling up a little bit when he actually walked across the mock stage to get the diploma in his hand.  But in true grampa fashion once it was over there was no need for all the dramatics and pomp and circumstance anymore.  He just wanted to get back to his chair to watch the Sox game. 

I’m thinking it was probably because they held the thing in a cemetery. 

Way to go there Massachusetts.  The irony of 80 year olds receiving their high school diploma in a cemetery is so outrageous I can’t even find a way to mock it more than it already mocks itself.

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Catch up on anything you missed  30 Photos, 30 Days
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