Sunday, March 29, 2009

Something lost in the translation...



One of my son-in-laws, Gerson, is originally from Mexico. Because of the differences in language and culture, he ends up being the brunt of some good natured teasing. Also, we are trying so hard to retrain him so that he "fits in" a little better in social settings. One of the things that G is evidently comfortable with, is eating freely from ANYONE'S plate whether in private or in public. Our family, on the other hand, is totally uncomfortable with that and has been trying to break him of that habit. Unfortunately, G has slip ups quite often. For example, last night all of the family had come over for dinner. We had just cleared the table and most people were at various points in finishing dessert. Ryan, my oldest son, was sitting at the end of the table with a brownie on his plate. Gerson was sitting to his left with his own brownie. I was sitting on Gerson's left and my daughter Leslie was directly across from me. Ryan got up from the table to get a drink of milk at about the same time that Maggie walked up to her daddy (Gerson) and asked for a bite of brownie. Suddenly, Leslie shouts, "Gerson! I can't believe you just did that!" Evidently, when Ryan walked away, Gerson very boldly and without any qualms, decided to reach over with his fork and get a bite of brownie for Maggie off of Ryan's plate instead of his own. Of couse, when he was caught red-handed, he smiled that goofy smile, started chuckling, and said, "What? I was just getting Maggie a bite." Leslie chewed him out for taking food off another person's plate instead of his own. So, Gerson decided to make restitution by taking a bite of brownie off his own plate and placing it on Ryan's plate. Needless to say, that just caused another uproar. I thought Ryan was going to smack the tar out of G, but instead he said, "Dude! Get that @$&*@#* piece of crap off my plate!" Honestly, I think Gerson actually was being greedy and just didn't want to give up a bite of HIS own brownie and thought no one would notice him feeding Maggie from Ryan's plate. But, with that whole language/culture thing going on, will we ever know for sure?

3 comments:

Kathy said...

G would fit right in at our house. Everyone's plate is fair game!! I guess we should have been from Mexico!! Your family will have to learn to eat 'basic training' style. Larry taught it to the kids a long time ago to keep others from eating off their plates. (arms around your plate, leaning over your plate, only about 6 inches between your plate and your mouth)

HollyDolly said...

When I'm hanging out with Leslie, I purposefully eat off of her plate cuz I know it irritates her. Usually, we get a good laugh out of it.

Woolverton Girl said...

Poor G!! It does sound like he was just being greedy. I can't blame him, I think I may have done the same thing. I LOVE brownies!!