Theme Thursday - Funky

The folks over at Theme Thursday have a doozy this week: Funky.

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When you're a kid, weddings mean long mornings of staying clean, of dressing up in funky clothes you hate and funky shoes that are torture devices cutting into your skin.

Weddings mean endless reprimands to behave and be quiet. Of being told to smile, to shake his hand or kiss her cheek or fix your funky hair or stop fidgeting.

Weddings entail listening to drunk adults tell funky jokes and give awkward advice you are either way too old or way too young for. They involve too many people, too much time and too little fun of the kid variety.

And weddings involve being forced onto the dance floor and into funky moves with people who can't dance and with whom you don't want to be dancing.

Your grandmother is up there, 80-something years old, having a blast because this is what she has been waiting for. She is smiling, not just because she remembers all the moves, but because she is part of the crowd. Everyone is included, and for an all-too-brief moment in an otherwise boring day, you have some fun.

Now, so many years removed from being a kid, you think back on those days with a forgiving memory.

The day didn't last as long as you thought it did. The clothes, even if the styles are bad in hindsight, weren't that uncomfortable. And it really wasn't asking too much to behave and be quiet for one day, now and then.

You realize why some of the adults drank a little too much, and told the jokes you thought were so lame. You shake your head and smile as you catch yourself telling these same jokes, even staler now, to the kids around you.

And you think back on those long ago people, the adults of your childhood. So many are gone now, their time past. Their bad jokes and weird advice left to memory. Yet remembered still. Maybe not so lame after all.

When the DJ starts playing those old dances, you remember the one truly fun memory from so long ago. And you remember your grandmother and her joy at dancing, at living in the moment.

You get up on the dance floor, pulling some reluctant kid or embarrassed teenager with you. As a group, you share the bizarre moves of some old dances, and you realize funky wasn't so bad after all.

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Thanks to my buddy Jeff for some late night editing help!

Check out what the other participants came up with!