Family Traditions

My family has some time-honored and cherished traditions that have been passed down over hundreds of years, as exemplified in this conversation Granndad and I had once when he visited:


Granddad: You made chocolate chip cookies?
Me: Yes, they're just break and bakes.
Granddad: Those are the kind Grandma makes.
Me: I know. It's a family recipe!

We also have special names for things, that only the cool kids know about. Josh calls them Willis-isms, but these can actually be traced back to Gettings and Bowman origins:

Eggy bread [eg-eee bred] 
noun 
French toast 

Boosie [boo-see]
noun
Butt; short for caboose

(Note: I actually thought boosie was the real word for butt until about first or second grade, when one of the Hamilton twins said, "Why do you call your butt a boosie?" Thanks for that life lesson, girls. That's when I realized my parents made things up and passed them off as truths.)

Hootie Hoot [hoot-eee hoot] 
noun
Cardboard core of a paper towel, toilet paper or wrapping paper roll. Derived from the noise you make when you shout through one like a megaphone, "Hootie Hoot!"


We also have come up with some good survival strategies. One particularly useful strategy that has been passed down from generation to generation is the good old "cover your smoke detector with a shower cap when you're cooking something that's setting it off." 

In recent times, shower caps have fallen from grace, along with pantyhose and blue eyeshadow, but you can still find them. Mine was purchased specifically as a kitchen tool, not to keep my hair dry in the shower. I'm going to start keeping it in the drawer with other utensils. Make sure you don't buy the fabric kind that allow your head to "breathe." No. You want the plastic, make-your-head-sweat kind. Only that kind will keep burning dinner aroma from setting off your life-saving smoke detector.