“Hello, daaaahling!”
That’s my imitation of one of the people in our church back when I was a kid. Yeah, it would be okay to say “punk kid”, since that would be a relatively accurate description.
(Note: If you attended the COG in Oak Lawn back in the 60’s and 70’s, you know who I’m talking about….God bless her.)
My brother and I (he’ll deny this if you ask him, but he was in on it…) along with some of our other buddies in the youth group had imitations of various people in the church. I guess, to be honest, there was a little bit of disrespect in it all, but mainly it was just good-natured joking around. It was just having a little fun. It was the kind of thing young people do.
Well, it’s been over 3 decades since my teen years and, sure enough, the tables have turned. Now my son and his buddies have impressions of me and other people in the church. I’ve seen and heard some of them and they’re pretty amusing. It’s inevitable. I figure, “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” Right? “What comes around goes around.”
There are probably some other sayings that apply but I can’t think of them.
They try to do their impersonations on the sly, but sometimes, I catch them in the act. That’s always fun. One day a hilarious impersonation of one of our singers was occurring at my house. The young person* doing the impersonation didn’t know I was home. He was literally strutting around the house belting out his impersonation in a loud, boisterous voice.
When he came around the corner and saw me standing at the top of the stairs, he immediately stopped singing and with a sheepish look on his face said, “Oh, I didn’t know you were home.”
After an awkward pause, he ran down the stairs while all the other guys cackled with delight at this “gotcha!” moment. Ahhh, memories.
Time will roll on and, yes, the tables will turn. And, someday--not too long from now, in the big scheme of things--a group of teenagers will be doing impersonations of my son and his buddies. I sure do hope I’m around for that. It’s so comforting to know that some things never change.
P.S. The impersonation of me, as far as I know, consists of one word. The trick is that it has to be spoke with just the right vocal inflection: “Really...?”
* “Young person”: he’s in the photo. Yep, he's in there alright.
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