eLeCTRIC PENCILS

Every day, like clockwork, my father would take a shit, once in the wee hours of the morning before he went to work, and then again when he got home for dinner. He would disappear into the bathroom and stay there for an extended period of time.

The reason I mention this is because I had an odd thought. I have these often, usually about things that were normal to me, but probably not normal to other people, and I just didn’t realize it. For example, in my family, we eat gravy on pancakes. Granted, our pancakes aren’t as sweet as what you’d get at say Denny’s or whatever, but yeah, not really met anyone else who did that.

So, the odd thought today is about my dad’s shitting habits, more specifically, that he called it “sitting.” Every day, he’d say, “Alright, I’m gonna go sit before supper.” Well, when my sisters and I were younger it was more like “Does anyone have to use the bathroom before I go sit?” Naturally, we would scramble to use the bathroom because 1. who knows how long he’s going to be in there and 2. you don’t really want to go in there right after he’s done.

But today, as I was “sitting,” it occurred to me that I’ve never heard anyone else call it that, other than my father.