Garage Humor Redux

Recently my family sat around one evening telling stories and Cousin M. contributed this garage-related gem.

He was 17 or 18, home alone for the weekend while Ma and Pa were traveling. Being the industrious sort, he told his parents that he didn’t have anything to do that weekend, might they suggest a household project that he could sink his teeth into?

Well, Pa knew just the thing. He gave Cousin M. cash and asked him to paint the garage in their absence. Cousin M. nodded. Pa added a last bit of instruction.

“Get paint that won’t show dirt.”

Now, Cousin M. is industrious. Cousin M. is bright. But Cousin M. was a teenager, and judgment is not the forte of any teenager.

He chose dark brown for the walls. And I suppose if he had left it at that it would have been only odd. But the best was yet to come. He decided that the best color for not showing dirt was black, and so he painted the ceiling black.

Ma and Pa returned home on schedule. Pa stepped out of the car and issued the mild understatement, “Interesting paint choices.”

As he was going into the house Cousin M. heard him say to Ma, “Well, at least I didn’t have to paint the damn thing.”

The family garage is dark brown and black lo these fifteen years later.