Major Embarassments due to Family

[Chebass88]

When I was in high school, my father was on a big colonial music kick. As a music teacher, he convinced his school to purchase some rope tension drums, fifes, and costumes uniforms. He made us do all sorts of parades and events - some of them paid cash, so that helped, a little bit. In order to practice marching for the parades, he would take my brother and sisters (with the drums and fifes) to our local shopping center to march around the parking lot. "The World Turned Upside Down", & all the rest of the late 18th century Top 40.

Part of the rules of his house was that I had to participate, even when I was home for college. He paid for college, and it was his house, so his rules. The absolute WORST time was on Memorial Day, after just having come home from a year of college. After the gig, we got stuck in shore traffic on the way home (Rt. 13 in DE). So there we were, moving along at 5mph in a large Chevy station wagon, with a giant plastic storage bin on the luggage racks. We were dressed in our costumes uniforms, and we passed a church who was cashing in on the captive audience going by. As the only one who could reach, I was asked to retrieve the car Bible from the back, and hold it out the window, letting the church know we already believed. I had to lean out the window and shout "We're Christians too!", while waving the Bible at them.

The reason I bring all of this up - I just came across an electronic version of a photo my siblings and I wished thought had disappeared. So, here it is, in all of its glory. My dad, me, my brother and two sisters, ca. 1996. (I usually played the bass drum, kind of made up parts on the fly - don't remember why I had a snare on)



Any more examples of monumental parental embarassment good family fun?

Chebass88

[PSPookie]

I was raised by two CPA's; does that count?

Q: What's the difference between a CPA and a computer?
A: The computer has more personality.

[macaroni tony]

HAHA! I have plenty of examples. My mom was embarrassing!

- We were forced to wear fanny packs on all field trips in middle school. Awful, awful, awful. Imagine the torture I went through from my schoolmates!

- At every little kid party we went to, we were forced to wear a suit, and my sisters dresses. "Better to be overdressed than underdressed"

- My mom drove a bus. When my older sister wasn't available to watch us, we, of course (the 4 of us younger kids) had to ride along. On many occasions, we were forced to sit in the front and greet everyone that came on the bus.

- My mom wanted us to be cultured, so she often took us to museums, plays, international concerts, what have you. Well one day we went to see a concert at Angel's Flight, a nice little outdoor park/free venue area in LA. My brother and I both were forced to wear brown sandals, a white dress shirt, and jeans. At 12 and 13 years old. Her reason? "I see black men dress like this all the time and the look VERY HANDSOME!" None of the cool kids wear sandals and dress shirts! None of em!

[MJ5150]

Nothing like that, sorry. The child abuse title is misleading, maybe it's just me being too sensitive, and tacky.

-Mike

[Chebass88]

^ Awesome. Fanny packs FTW.

We also had a "Family Band". We used to play at various churches, including our own. One of the worst was when we were having a "Mexican"-themed Vacation Bible School. We had to stand on the steps on the church, playing traditional kids church songs with a "Latin" feel. Me on bass, my brother on drums, my sisters & mom singing, and my dad on guitar. The director of the youth group came up and made a giant effort of tossing a quarter onto the ground in front of where we were playing. I felt 3" tall!

When I had my college music audition on French Horn, my dad took me, wearing the stained sweatpants he used for work around the house, an old shirt, and the ubiquitous "lawn vest" that every dad seems to own. Didn't he realize that it was COLLEGE, and there could be GIRLS there? (Not that I would have had any ability to talk with them, but still...)

[Chebass88]

Originally Posted by MJ5150

Nothing like that, sorry. The child abuse title is misleading, maybe it's just me being too sensitive, and tacky.

-Mike

Absolutely - I just watched "What about Bob?", and the scene where the dad is teaching his kid to dive reminded me of this.

[hangman]

From the title of the thread, I thought it was going to be a discussion of real child abuse and the recent arrest of dozens of hopefully soon-to-be-living-their-short-ass-lives-in-agonizing-pain-while-in-prison perverts.

[macaroni tony]

Ew May they rot

[macaroni tony]

Originally Posted by MJ5150

Nothing like that, sorry. The child abuse title is misleading, maybe it's just me being too sensitive, and tacky.

-Mike

I no gets

[Funky Ghost]

My abuse is the polar opposite of my friends. They LOVED my family, I was always embarrassed. I was a square in a hippy family. I loathed pretty much everything about the hippy life. It wasn't as romantic as Flashback made it seem, but I wasn't as affected as "Free" was in the movie ether. ( I love that movie btw )

[macaroni tony]

Originally Posted by hangman

From the title of the thread, I thought it was going to be a discussion of real child abuse and the recent arrest of dozens of hopefully soon-to-be-living-their-short-ass-lives-in-agonizing-pain-while-in-prison perverts.

Why don't you start a thread on it?

I didn't think this thread would be a big deal for anyone...looks to me like it's just making fun of those "spanking" threads

EDIT: Aaah, he changed the thread title! Well, I thought it was funny

[SamanthaCay]

My Dad used to beat the crap out of me with an oak paddle,
but I never had too endure anything that bad lol.

[hangman]

Originally Posted by macaroni tony

Why don't you start a thread on it?

I have no desire to start a thread on it.


And thanks, Chebass, for changing the thread title. I know you didn't want to make light the subject, but that's how it came across to me, anyway. Hence my post. Have a good weekend!

[macaroni tony]

^ Didn't mean to be antagonistic hangman, just thought you wanted to talk about it

[hangman]

No worries bro, everything i wanted to say was summed up in the quote from Pulp Fiction.

[macaroni tony]

HAHA! I noticed that...

[Relic]

Originally Posted by macaroni tony

HAHA! I have plenty of examples. My mom was embarrassing!


- My mom wanted us to be cultured, so she often took us to museums, plays, international concerts, what have you. Well one day we went to see a concert at Angel's Flight, a nice little outdoor park/free venue area in LA. My brother and I both were forced to wear brown sandals, a white dress shirt, and jeans. At 12 and 13 years old. Her reason? "I see black men dress like this all the time and the look VERY HANDSOME!" None of the cool kids wear sandals and dress shirts! None of em!

You aint got nuttin!

My mom went through this kick where she decided it would be cool to MAKE us our own clothes. Now...I love my mom, and she may very well have been talented and innovative in making clothing and all that, but the one thing she lacked was tact and fashion-sense.
Yessir. I'm still traumatized.
I remember going to school wearing a red/white/and blue checked polyester blazer...I remember the dreaded clown costume that we were forced to endure on Halloween, but the coup de gras was what she called the "pantsuit". The dreaded, evil, nightmare-educing pantsuit...
Now, picture a ONE PIECE suit that consisted of a vest/sleeveless, collarless top connected to a set of shorts (cut short on the leg no less) that you would wear a white dress shirt under, short white socks and black dress shoes. Now if that's not bad enough, picture it being a mauve and purple vertical striped pattern. Distressed yet? THIS when I was like 6/7 years old!!
DAMMIT MOM!!!

[EricF]

Originally Posted by buchananbass

My Dad used to beat the crap out of me with an oak paddle,
but I never had too endure anything that bad lol.

LOL

[Relic]

Originally Posted by hangman

From the title of the thread, I thought it was going to be a discussion of real child abuse and the recent arrest of dozens of hopefully soon-to-be-living-their-short-ass-lives-in-agonizing-pain-while-in-prison perverts.

I read that story yesterday. That made me sick to my stomach and wanting to really REALLY hurt someone. I dont even want to go there because I'll probably say some very out of character stuff about those evil sick demons.

[Ziltoid]

Both of my parents are university teacher at the university I study, you get used to embarassements, they're usually not big ones tho.