Family Tradition

Well, my family (consisting of my Mom, Dad, and me) do not practice many unique, routine traditions per se, with the exception of typical things such as eating meals together. 'Can't say we didn't try, though. Family vacations were always a gas. We always tried to have fun on our annual visits to Destin/Gulf Shores, but in the end all our hopes and anticipations ended up falling flat. For one thing, there's nothing to do down there. In the words of Bill Hicks, it just happens to be a place where dirt meets water. If anyone would like to explain to me how making sand castles, floating in water, and getting sun burned can be fun, I'd really like to know. The subsidiary attractions never held my interest for very long either. The prices for attractions such as jet skiing, parasailing, and scuba diving were absurd, so each year the only thing my cousin and I had to look forward to was the water park and miniature golf land, and I must say, in the end we preferred the latter. Goofy goff was entertaining to us for a number of reasons: the endless slopes, hills, and arrays of traps, the silly themes, the general lack of skill required, but most importantly because we always played miniature golf at night, when it was cool and all the lights were glowing in radiant neon. It was a complete change for the better in comparison to the terribly hot and boring festivities that we were forced to traverse during the day. After our long, delightful round of eighteen holes, we would then retract completely from parents and authority into the inner sanctum of the arcade zone. Everything was there for the taking: skeeball, motorbike-simulation games, and a slew of notorious token munchers such as Time Crisis and Die Hard. The sad part was that all this was readily available back home. I will cut Destin some slack in one department though; the food. All of the restaurants were simply to die for, and I had a ball eating at Fudpuckers and secretely feeding the alligators down below. In the end though, it simply wasn't worth the money or effort it took to make and voyage come true. Next year came around, and we promised to never again go to Florida, and to this day, nearly six years later, we have held steadfast to that promise. I have a feeling that many families view vacations to Florida with a similar contempt, and yet they are too narrowminded and tied down to the opinions and insistence of others that Destin is the greatest place ever. I am proud of my family and me that we were able to take a step back and reflect on what a shitty time we had each year, and that we could have just as much fun kicking it back in Memphis all summer.

Another short-lived family tradition of ours was shooting fireworks off at our house on New Years. At one time we were the only family around our block that used fireworks, and we took a certain pride in this fact. As a young kid I remember always anticipating this day. I've never been a pyro by any stretch of the imagination, and yet I clearly remember marveling at the explosions and vibrant displays of color and energy. I would always gaze with content at the magnificent chemical reactions taking place before my eyes. It was this annual event that first sparked (Disregard it;yes you know what I'm talking about) my interest in science, and the phenomena behind fireworks intrigues me to this day. As the years went by, other people in the neighborhood slowly caught on and followed suit, and soon it became a trend to shoot fireworks, and after a while, our (or at least my) interest gradually waned.

So basically at one point we decided to stop trying to plan our own family traditions, and instead just stick to the classics such as Thanksgiving and Christmas. Thanksgiving is always an important time in our family, and as I've grown older I've learned to enjoy both the quality time that I get to spend with my parents, grandparents, and cousins, and also the food, at which one point in time I was heavily biased towards, that is until I actually gave it a chance. I no longer cut up at the table either, nor do I say that I am bored and ready to excuse myself. I learned to just kick back at the table and bask in the effervescent glow of all my relatives happily chatting and musing about, as if at that moment of time, there wasn't a care in the world. So even though in essence I consider Thanksgiving a bullshit holiday (Remember those same Indians we befriended that day? Yeah, we killed them like what the day after?) I've learned to just go with it and enjoy the tradition, however irrational it may seem. The same thing goes for Christmas. I don't subscribe to the faith, but we all enjoy the same spirit of gathering around together for a large turkey dinner, and then opening presents under the tree.