Odd Family Members

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Flying_Monkey

Recyclist
Location
Odawa
Being at a family funeral the other day meant that I got to meet quite a few members of my family who I don't see very often. The one thing that struck me is how really odd the members of my family are. Not that they are freakishly wierd, but just how eccentric and not normal they are. This goes quite a way back too... my family includes everything from vaudeville artists to famous golfers, but the vast bulk of them are either very talented, unstable and very intelligent people who never quite managed to fit in anywhere or hold down conventional jobs for very long, or people who did very self-effacing things like foster many difficult children. Yet to the outside world, most of these people would seem unremarkable.

I find myself wondering what difference family makes to me. I feel as outside it as most of my family seem to be the world. Excuse the rambling, but the question is - is everyone's family like this? In a way I hope so... but I'd also be interested if there are people with entirely 'normal', well-adjusted family members...
 

Arch

Married to Night Train
Location
Salford, UK
Flying_Monkey said:
Being at a family funeral the other day meant that I got to meet quite a few members of my family who I don't see very often. The one thing that struck me is how really odd the members of my family are. Not that they are freakishly wierd, but just how eccentric and not normal they are.


I fear at a family funeral, I'd be the freak...:smile:
 

wafflycat

New Member
Console yourself, FM, that those odd members of your family probably considered you to be the real freak :smile:

Anyhow, what is 'normal' says she who refers to the maternal side of the family as 'The Borgias'.. :tongue:
 

NickM

Veteran
I'm disconnected from my family, too, if it's any consolation. I just don't get the "blood is thicker than water" thing. My dad is the only one I've seen in the past year.
 
Good grief, no, my family are all totally boring staid people who went to the local grammar school, worked hard, went on to university and became bank managers, accountants, teachers, surveyors, engineers etc. We're just a stolid, honest lot with ne'er an original thought in our heads.
 

Paulus

Started young, and still going.
Location
Barnet,
My younger Brother is not "normal". He is my real brother, but looks nothing like any of the family at all. He is short, fat, bald, wheras the rest of the family are tall ish 5.11 upwards with most of there own hair, our dad is 82 and still has a good head of hair. Whenever the family get together at funerals, unfortunately we are at that stage of life where there seems to be a lot of them in the last few years, my brother sticks out like a sore thumb. He must be a genetic throwback to someone in the family history? He could of been the milkmans I suppose? I believe it is Mendlesons law that dictates how a person gets their looks.
 

Fnaar

Smutmaster General
Location
Thumberland
I have (at the last count) more than 50 cousins... most of these I wouldn't know if they were next to me in the supermarket queue...
among their number are airline pilots, athletes, alcoholic down 'n' outs and two currently doing time in prison! I feel quaintly normal by comparison, but not everyone would agree with that!
 

simonali

Guru
Paulus said:
My younger Brother is not "normal". He is my real brother, but looks nothing like any of the family at all. He is short, fat, bald, wheras the rest of the family are tall ish 5.11 upwards with most of there own hair, our dad is 82 and still has a good head of hair. Whenever the family get together at funerals, unfortunately we are at that stage of life where there seems to be a lot of them in the last few years, my brother sticks out like a sore thumb. He must be a genetic throwback to someone in the family history? He could of been the milkmans I suppose? I believe it is Mendlesons law that dictates how a person gets their looks.

Mine is the opposite. Dad is 5' 6" and bald, so is my middle brother, I'm 5' 8" and bald. Youngest brother is about 6' 2" with all his hair, the jammy git!

I favour the hospital mix-up/swap scenario!
 
Well I suppose everyone has their quirks. My family is extremely small, I have no cousins, no grandparents still alive. We are all bog standard working people from the north west. Up until my brother and I arrived, we stayed local in the north west and had conventional jobs. Mum is an administrator and dad a salesman. Our relatives in Kendal and Newcastle are shop assistants, window cleaners, work on the railways, things like that. All of us are very pragmatic, not afraid of getting our hands dirty and just get on with it, really. My brother and I were the first to get A levels or go to uni. My brother is a pro musician and we can see how there is a family history there. I, on the other hand, am a complete freak of nature. God knows how I ended up as an academic because nobody else in the family is that educated.

Women from my dad's side of the family have a rebellious and creative streak, men are down the line fair and principled. On my mum's side everything must be done 'properly' - kind of working class snobbery. Musical talent comes from both sides of the family, but only ever in a grass roots way. That's about it. Oh and we have weird religions - mum's side are practising spiritualists and my dad's sister decided to 'turn' jewish. My dad, bless him, is an atheist.
 
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Flying_Monkey

Flying_Monkey

Recyclist
Location
Odawa
Kirstie said:
Oh and we have weird religions - mum's side are practising spiritualists and my dad's sister decided to 'turn' jewish. My dad, bless him, is an atheist.

My grandmother (whose funeral it was that provided the inspiration for this thread) was a spiritualist, but one whom came from a partly Jewish family. Parents are very C of E, but the kids, well, I'm a Buddhist, my sister is a New Ager, and my brother... well, who knows?

Like you, I'm also the first really university-educated member of my family, and certainly the first academic. Most of the others are very bright but either didn't get the opportunities because of being poor, or were unlucky or just too flakey.
 
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Flying_Monkey

Flying_Monkey

Recyclist
Location
Odawa
Patrick Stevens said:
Is this code for saying that they found it impossible to take the All Souls Prize Fellowship exam and lick a window at the same time? ;)

Some of them look like they'd be more likely to be found doing the latter...
 

walker

New Member
Location
Bromley, Kent
My family is as normal as the next, I have a few of them that have done time, and I ironically have a few policemen in it too. As my family are from African decent, on my grandads funeral I met a lot of family members I've never met before, one being a roadie for the lighthouse family. No one that's really excelled as such, I've got a teacher, one that owns his own business, and the rest are just doing normal jobs, both manual and office. Oddly enough I'm the only male member in my family that works in an office although not for much Longer.
 
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