Salute to the jokesters

Some people snort when asked about their father’s sense of humor.

That’s because lots of intense, intimidating dads definitely weren’t/aren’t a laugh riot.

This is not about those guys.

Today, on Father’s Day, we salute Dad Humor – that special brand of whimsy or drollery perfected by generations of parents. This is a tip of the hat to the men who gave us “Pull my finger” and “I’ll give you something to cry about.”

Maria Washington’s dad likes to plop young children and babies onto his knee and instruct them, “Say sunny beach and I’ll give you a whiskey.”

“My dad can tell a silly, silly joke and get a group of logger-type men laughing,” said Washington, a Spokane grandmother who works with information technology.

South Hill paralegal Jodi Dineen recalled that her father seemed sort of gruff when she was little. But sometimes, when they were setting places for dinner, he would say, “Off the table, Mabel, the quarter’s for the beer.”

It wasn’t until she was older that Dineen had any idea what that meant.

Retired North Side resident Barb Noe remembered that her dad once wrote “Phooey!” on a check written to satisfy a disputed bill. “And after receiving a speeding ticket on Trent Avenue many years ago, he referred to that area as ‘enemy territory’ until the day he died.”

Spokane insurance broker Curt Olsen characterized his dad’s sense of humor as “time delayed.”

For example, back in 1965, Olsen melted some crayons on the hood of his father’s brand new Cadillac.

And by about 1975, his dad was willing to acknowledge that the incident was sort of funny.

Debra Sidor Tanner remembered a time her dad pulled her future sister-in-law’s leg.

“Our family dinners were loud, raucous affairs as there were eight of us, our parents and six children,” wrote Tanner, 53, an administrator at Spokane Falls Community College. “My brother invited his rather quiet, shy girlfriend to dinner. She was immediately overwhelmed by the noise and confusion.

“She quietly put a few bits of food on her plate. But when reaching for a piece of fried chicken, the room suddenly went still and my father, over the top of his glasses, said ‘Don’t take that piece, it’s my favorite!’ “

The poor girl was mortified.

Others had a different reaction.

“I still remember my brother laughing so hard he had mashed potatoes coming out of his nose.”

Sometimes Dad Humor is appreciated only after the fact – years after.

Hood River, Ore., resident Eileen Garvin recalls that her friends dreaded her father answering the phone when they called her at the family home in Spokane. She and her mother can do an impression of those fruitless exchanges.

“Is Eileen there?”

“No.”

“Do you know when she’ll be back?”

“No.”

“Do you know where she is?”

“No.”

Retired transportation executive Jack Thompson’s truck driver dad could be a bit dour.

Thompson recalled his mother once telling his father that if he cast his bread upon the waters, it would return threefold.

“Yes, but it would be soggy,” replied Thompson’s dad.

Elk resident Sandra O’Connor remembered that her dad would go to extremes to deceptively package birthday and Christmas presents. On other occasions he would provide elaborate sets of clues that circuitously led to a gift.

Nurse Karen Buck’s late father used to walk by a Spokane grocery store operated by a guy who really liked him. There was almost always a cat dozing in the front window.

As her dad passed by, sometimes with young Karen in tow, he would rap hard on the window with his keys. “This always startled me, the cat and the grocer, who would dash out onto the sidewalk, ready to grab the young hooligan who was pounding on his glass. Upon seeing my dad, laughter and back-slapping always ensued.”

Sometimes love frames a memory. And even if the highlighted moment might not qualify as unbridled hilarity, it can still nudge a smile onto your face.

“When I was about 14, Dad and I had gone deer hunting together one afternoon,” wrote Anne Thomas, a 54-year-old Okanogan resident. “We got around to eating the lunch that Mom made for us.”

The sandwiches were a tad dry. And her dad offered an assessment.

“Your mother must think that tuna fish is cheaper than mayonnaise,” he said.

You could argue that dads who did not regard themselves as comedians were the ones who said and did the most memorably amusing things.

Tara Leininger, a 49-year-old church pastor in Pend Oreille County, remembered something her Montana grandfather used to say.

“If we saw him going to his old, green Ford truck, we’d run after him and cry out, ‘Grandpa, where are you going?’ ” she wrote. “He’d always reply, ‘China, wanna come along?’ “

Of course, they did.

Charlene Luzynski, a grandmother in Blanchard, Idaho, recalled when she was in grade school in the northeast corner of Montana.

“Dad had been teaching me to drive the car, without my mother knowing,” she wrote. “One day, out of the blue, he got in the back seat, had her do the same, and gave me the car keys. And off we went down the road.”

You could say her mom was surprised. “I thought she was going to have a heart attack or kill him.”

Sherie Jensen, a 49-year-old bookkeeper for a Post Falls toolmaker, grew up on a farm in North Dakota.

Her dad led a no-nonsense life, but he had a soft spot for animals.

“He would get all dressed up in winter gear to walk kittens through a blizzard to get them to the safety of their barn.”

Still, he wasn’t what you would call zany – except this one time.

“My mom and I came home from shopping and when we walked in the house, Dad had the silliest grin on his face,” wrote Jensen. “He had just spent a few hours alone in the house with our house cat, Triblet. Somehow, while he was shaving, he got the impulse to trim Triblet’s whiskers, too. And there she was, with all her long whiskers snipped down to a Groucho Marx kind of sideways mustache.”

(Don’t try that at home.)

Sometimes the line between humor and affection is blurry.

Gail Woods, a 46-year-old Air Force wife, remembered her dad entertaining her sons by interacting with stuffed animals as if they were real. He must have been fairly convincing, because soon the youngest boy was carrying on conversations with one of the plush toys.

OK, we all know that there are more than a few fathers who have no sense of humor and are also lacking in many other respects as well.

The good ones, though, are worth celebrating.

If your dad is alive, you’ve got plenty of options today.

If he’s not, you can savor your memories.

“My dad passed away in 1985 and a day still doesn’t go by that I don’t miss him,” said Susan Cairy, who recruits volunteers to work with abused and delinquent children. “He was anything but the big, gruff, guy some know as Dad. But the best thing about his sense of humor was his giggle. It didn’t matter if the joke he was telling was funny, his laughter was infectious.”

She said her sister laughs just like her dad did.

So it’s no surprise that Cairy enjoys trying to crack her up.

“I love to make my sister laugh.”