I enjoy funerals. Well, perhaps not the service per se, but the day in general. They are The Best time for catching up with old friends. Yesterday when I happened to mention this to one of my classes, they thought I was having a lend of them. No, I insisted, they are a blast. Cynical little bastards still looked sceptical. Mind you, events probably aren't much chop for the main attraction, although I'm sure even dead people get over their funeral in time.
By the way, I just went to a funeral. We were there to - in the clerical vernacular - Celebrate The Life of my best friend's mother.
Despite starting out a dour affair, things brightened up at the end when one of the many infants present spewed chunks of green snake lollies all over his mother. Laugh? It could only have been funnier had the boy done it mid-eulogy; right after the priest, responding to a relentless barrage of squealing toddlers, announced "I love children, feel free to let them run amok." Yeah, right. I'm sure one or two of the congregation believed him, but I wasn't convinced. He may as well have said he believed in God.
Addendum: My friend's mum kicked the bucket on August 29, the same day as my friend's dad died. The same day as my friend was born. And what's more, the very same day Michael Jackson was born.
Dour!
Sandgropers are bagged for saying derr-bee instead of darr-bee, but are less famous for saying doo-er instead of dow-err.
Or maybe I just imagined that.
Posted by: Tony.T | 06 September 2006 at 14:55
Speaking of dour ... Huddo and Gerard Healy calling a Norf Melbourne pre-season game some years ago. Referring to Adam Lange, who is now plying his trade with Swan Districts in the WAFL.
(Lange, playing half-back, pushes up to the wing, leads his opponent to the ball by five yards and proceeds to double fist the Sherrin across the boundary line in a move that would these days cost him a free kick for deliberately putting it out of bounds).
Huddo: Ball kicked up to the wing, Lange leads out to it .. oh .. and just fists it over the boundary line. Gee, he's a dour defender, isn't he Gerard?
Gerard: Well when you're five yards in front of your opponent and punch it out of bounds, I think that qualifies as dour, Huddo.
Posted by: Gareth | 06 September 2006 at 16:56
That's dour alright.
Pn reflection, I think I heard it on ABC TV's country coverage of the WAFL. (With Greatest Fights of the Century at half-time.) Maybe from George Grljusich, Dennis Cometti, Ken Casellas, Ken Armstrong; one of those faces, anyway. Wally Foreman? Me and my brother and dad used to think it sounded funny.
Posted by: Tony.T | 06 September 2006 at 18:50
I seem to recall that Wally (mis)pronounces it that way ...
Posted by: Gareth | 06 September 2006 at 19:04
SINCERE condolences to YBF.
Life is full of those weird coincidences.
My friend Jack had son Daniel on 9/3 his 34th birthday,
Daniel had his son on 9/3 when HE was 34.
Posted by: brownie | 06 September 2006 at 20:14
"They are The Best time for catching up with old friends."
I'll say. At a funeral about a year I caught up with an old girfriend and after the wake and we ended doing some very life affirming stuff that night. Although at one point she said she felt funny about the funny business we were up to. I pointed out she used to bonk the recently deceased (Yes, before he was deceased. A decade ago. You people have vile minds) and no doubt he would have wanted it this way. To which she replied, no he liked this way, and proceeded to demonstrate. Strange night.
And I've been made executor of a (living) friend's will on the proviso I strictly enforce his request that the music to played as the pall bearers lug him out is "Popcorn".
He was inspired by Peter Sellars' request that Glenn Miller's "In The Mood" be played at his funeral service.
Posted by: Nabakov | 06 September 2006 at 20:24
You people have vile minds ...
Indeed we do Nabakov, now as you were saying ... ?
Posted by: TimT | 06 September 2006 at 20:58
Typically, guys seem to link everything (including death) to AFL.
I hate funerals. Boring as shit unless the person being commemorated was someone I didn't really like.
Posted by: Me! | 07 September 2006 at 11:48
Funerals should be fun. A celebration of the deceased’s life, but at most funerals I get insanely angry. People seem unable to tell the truth after someone’s death, and particularly at their funeral. The display of hypocrisy by the media after Steve Irwin’s death is an example.
I remember at the funeral of a friend of mine the brother of the dead guy started talking about how nice the guy was and how he never hassled anyone. Bull fucking shit. It was the hilarious insults the deceased hurled at people that made him the guy he was and that was one of the reasons I liked him. But his brother described someone else.
Anyway that is why I avoid funerals.
Posted by: Chris Fryer | 07 September 2006 at 12:03
I think it depends on the funeral. For example, whether the death was expected or not and the age of the person who has died.
I'm wondering if people have chosen their funeral song. A good friend of mine (gay as all f**k) wants "Quiet please, there's a lady on stage".
Posted by: Darlene | 11 September 2006 at 08:51