This Friday is amateur night at pubs and bars throughout the land. The celebration of St. Patrick’s Day gives everyone a license to be Irish for a day and hung over for another. A day when men can parade around in a skirt and play their bagpipes loud and proud. I can’t play the pipes but I enjoy the refreshing a breeze a skirt allows.

In our family March 17th is special for another reason, Grandpa Ardell’s birthday. “Big Grandpa” as my kids call him, will turn 75 this Friday, and he didn’t seem real impressed when I referred to 75 years as ¾ of a century. However long it’s been or however you refer to it I just feel fortunate to be sharing a portion of it.

Grandpa attended Clayton School in the Foothills District of Burke County. You may be surprised to hear that his 8th grade report card shows that he was a “B” student. You may not be surprised however to learn that his report card also had several check marks in the conduct section titled “Inclined to Mischief.”

I know this doesn’t surprise me. I’ve witnessed several of these “Inclined to Mischief” moments, most of which were aimed at making me laugh when I wasn’t supposed to. My brother and me were alter boys growing up, Mom’s early attempt to save our souls, and we knew better than to look out at Grandpa during the church service.

We knew better than to do a lot of things, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t. Grandpa was always ready for our inevitable glance in his direction and would leave us giggling for the remainder of church. You have to forgive Grandpa for not being real serious in church, he’s a convert. He always said that Grandma and he had a mixed marriage, he was Lutheran and she was Catholic.

Grandpa likes to make people laugh as much as he likes to laugh. Of course nobody laughs like Grandpa. I don’t know how many babies I’ve heard cry after being startled by one of his laughs and I personally have wet myself a time or two laughing along with him. But let’s not digress into my incontinence. He always has a joke to tell, it’s always funny, and it’s always one I’ve never heard. I often wonder where he gets his material. If laughing is good medicine Grandpa has put another 30 years onto all of our lives.

Growing up the farm was more entertaining than the circus. The food was better, the rides more dangerous, and the ring leader provided hands on experience in the art of ditch burning. It is no accident that Grandma is so knowledgeable in the area of first aid.

People need laughter in their lives; thankfully I have Grandpa Ardell in mine. Most of what determines who we are and how we act is genetic. Thankfully my genetics are “Inclined to Mischief.”

.