The Rusty Chigger

There is an imaginary restaurant that my husband made up I don't remember when. His purpose in making it up was to basically gross our 5 year old daughter out. She is a strong willed, lets -do- it- my -way type of girl, and one day as she was saying how badly she wanted to go to one of her favorite fast food chains, "Mc-you know the rest" . I remember sitting in the car and She said,

"I want to go to Mc-DONALDS!!!"

Mark retorts, "No, I have the perfect place for us for lunch! It's called the Rusty Chigger! They have delicious foods to eat! Let's go there!"

Her immediate disgust was flagrantly conveyed, "EEEUUUGGGHHH!! No Daddy! I HATE the Rusty Chigger! I don't want to eat lunch there!!! YUCK."

This has been going on now since she was 3 or 4 years old. And she totally thinks it's a real restaurant. Mark never fails to describe some delectable offering from his imaginary eatery.

"Oohhh, your going to love the squirrel gizzards!"

And the fried chiggers on a stick."

I get such a kick out of watching them volley comments back and forth to each other. Her now half amused shrieks of horror at his suggestions, and his continuously creative and disgusting new food ideas. I can imagine this will become something that he will embarrass her with when friends come over as she grows older. It's these silly connections with your dad that make life fun. I remember growing up and my dad had no trouble teasing me, more like a big brother would than a dad. He on occasion would answer phone calls from my friends/boyfriends with "Hello, you've reached Tony's Pizzeria. " And I would grab the phone in exasperation and he got a chuckle. I love that we can laugh in our families. Taking ourselves too seriously gets old, and really reduces the "fun" factor.

So I hope that no matter how "distinguished" or "stylish", or "fancy"(as a friend of mine's daughter recently called me) we become, we'll always have time for The Rusty Chigger.