{…excerpted from a longer piece which first appeared in Spooky Action at a Distance…}

Because I grew up in a bland, East Coast suburb far removed from my Midwestern roots, I rarely met any of my extended family members.  Of course, since the invention of the automobile and the airplane, geographical distance only goes so far in explaining the dearth of family connections experienced by people such as myself.  A certain degree of emotional distance is also to blame.  In my case, this was due in large part to the fact that the families of my mother and father were unlikely to view one another with any sense of familiarity, let alone friendliness.

Although neither side of my family was over-populated by over-achievers, at least my mother’s side included professional musicians and artists who lived in real cities like New York.  My father’s family was more likely to include professional railroad and carnival workers in Wichita.  It was differences like these that bespoke a gaping chasm in world view within my extended family unit…

Read the rest at The Short Humour Site…