Categories: uncategorized
Date: 10 January 2008 22:39:41
If you have happened upon Neil's Random Wiblog in the last day or two, you may have noticed his post involving comically-named people. Well, that reminded me of a little story from my friends' wedding a couple of years ago, involving a very unfortunately-named gentleman and a slightly mad uncle...
The day before the wedding, one of my colleagues was telling me about someone of their acquaintance who was - shall we say - blessed, with the surname Foreskin. Now, my first thought (aside from childish sniggering) was to wonder how many generations of Foreskins had gone before without one of them thinking, "Hmmm, this is kind of embarrassing, maybe I should change my name."
So the next day I'm at the wedding reception, sitting with some friends in the bar during that bit between the meal and the evening entertainment, and I shared the saga of the unfortunately named Foreskin clan and my amazement that they hadn't considered a change, and my friends, sharing my immature sense of humour, all found this rather amusing too. But then, out of nowhere, an old man sitting behind me leaned over my shoulder and said, in a rather fruity but well-spoken voice, "I'm terribly sorry, I'm not entirely sure I heard that correctly..."
Thinking I'd offended the gentleman in question, I started to apologise, but the old man simply replied, "Oh, no, no, no, that's fine." Then a brief pause, and then he asked, "...so, tell me - how is the old foreskin now?" Somewhat lost for words, I kind of spluttered, "erm, it's fine thanks." Cue much hilarity from my friends. "Oh, good," replied the old man, "and do you still have it, or have you had it off?" This, gentle reader, was one of the few times in my life when I was actually properly lost for words. "I, er, I really don't know how to answer that!" I responded, and the old man wandered off back to the conversation he'd been taking part in before, and my friends and I collapsed into hysterics at this bizarre exchange.
Postscript: this story was much repeated over the weeks and months that followed, however it came to light a few months ago (well over a year after the incident) that the tale had not yet reached the couple whose wedding we were at. As it transpired, the mad old man was actually the bride's uncle and has a habit of having these strange conversations with people. I'm not sure if the rest of the family have heard it yet, but it sounds like being one of those stories that will be wheeled out for many years to come; although hopefully it won't be cut short... (sorry, had to get one gag in.)