That Time My Grandfather Climbed In Bed With Another Woman (By Accident)

What better way to follow up my most embarrassing story of all time then with another family classic? (Plus I wanted to link up to Finding the Funny and I'm running out of my own stories. I can only publicly humiliate myself so many times.)

This is one of my absolute favorite family stories:

Disclaimer: I think this is MY grandfather. I stole this pic from my cousin's Facebook page, so it might be his other grandfather.

My grandfather was a professional baseball player in the 1940's after he came home from the war. For a few summers he was playing for the minor league team in Elmira, New York.

My grandmother and their two young girls (my aunts, my dad wasn't born yet) would stay in Elmira with him during the playing season and they would rent an upstairs apartment from an elderly woman in town. The elderly woman lived downstairs. (During the off season they lived in Baltimore to be close to family.)

The year my Aunt Cathi was a newborn, my grandfather had an away game and while he was gone the elderly lady offered to switch apartments with my grandma. These were the days before air conditioning and the downstairs apartment was cooler for the baby, plus then the young mom wouldn't have to worry about getting two small kids up and down all the steps.

These were also the days before cell phones and the team was traveling by bus, so there was no way for them to notify my grandfather.

You know where this is going.

He came home late one night after everyone was asleep. He was trying to be as quiet as possible so he didn't wake up the baby. He went upstairs, in the dark (again trying not to wake the kids) and undressed thinking he was climbing into bed with the wife he hadn't seen for a while.

Instead he was met with the screams of his elderly land lady.

When Poppop told he story he would always reenact the way he jumped out of bed, yelled, "PARDON ME, MADAM!" grabbed his clothes, and got out of there as fast as he could.

And that is why, to this day, I like to say "Pardon me, Madam!" to break the tension in awkward situations. :)




linking to Pity Party