Last night my Mother-In-Law threw a Labor Day party. There was tons of food and it was a lot of fun. She invited all her neighbors so there wouldn’t be anyone to complain about the ultra loud Karaoke out of the garage. It worked for the most part. A guy named Leo came by about 10:15 that lived across the across the alley and down a couple of houses came by and asked if we could turn it off (or way down) by 11:00 cause that is when he had to get to bed to get up early and go to work. He brought some Crown Royal to share and stayed for a while (he was still there when we left about 10:40) just to show there were no hard feelings and I thought that was a really decent gesture. I will have to remember that move for when I am the person on the other side of the coin next time.
So I sang Karaoke in public for the first time in my life. It took about four beers but I had been encouraging the kids to get up there and sing and so I figured it would be hypocritical not to try myself. It will probably never happen again, LOL. I was especially happy to see my daughter sing. She has a pretty voice and good pitch but up till last night I couldn’t get to sing outside her room because her brothers used to tease her mercilessly when she was younger. My niece who is three years older was gracious enough to get up there with her the first time. The same niece who unbeknownst to me, video taped my performance. I told her if that video even wound up on You Tube I would hang her by her toes and pluck out every hair on her body, individually, with only a pair of tweezers.
Of course the oldest boy who is 15 and who’s cardinal rule in life is to do nothing that may be interpreted by anyone to look uncool at any time, did not get up and sing, but the 13 year old ham did (as well as showing us some fancy footwork or the ‘dance floor’). Our big surprise of the night was my 10 year old who choose Great Balls of Fire for his second song of the night. I had told him the key was to really belt out “Great Balls of Fire” instead of just singing it in a normal tone and he took my advice well. Privately, I didn’t think he would be able to pull it off especially since I knew he probably hadn’t heard it more than a handful of times, but he did a really good job. It was both cute and funny when he stumbled over the third verse ("You kissed me baba, woo.....it feels good. Hold me baby, learn to let me love you like a lover should") with pre-adolescent embarrassment. The icing on the cake was seeing Grandpa’s face light up when he heard him. Teddybear’s dad hasn’t been in good health for quite a long time and it always warms my heart to see him happy.
Some black friends of my in-laws sat in back, probably making fun of us for all our redneck ways (I guarantee, you won’t find any greater rednecks than my in-laws outside of backwoods West Virginia; it was all country and old time Rock. Please save me from ever having to hear Coal Miner’s Daughter again) but a guy named Charlie got up and sang ‘My Girl’ real sweet. I told my son that it would be a good one for him to learn for his future Karaoke career. Since last night he has been asking when the next time he could sing again and what songs could he sing and can he look up lyrics on-line? How about talent night at the school kid? Anyway a fun time was had by all although I have been told I MUST learn the electric slide (Lord Have Mercy) before the next one.
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Submitted by XSIce on Sun, 08/31/2008 - 15:58