Spontaneous memory recovery

November 19, 2008 – 8:50 pm

I often have spontaneous memory recoveries from many years ago that pop into my head for no apparent reason. I had one today.

This one took me back to high school. I believe sophomore year chemistry. Mr. McKewen was lecturing on some wacky chemistry concept. My friend Mark had a question, so he raised his hand.

Upon noticing Mark’s hand in the air, Mr. McKewen calmly asked, “Question, Mark?”

I burst out laughing. Question, Mark? Question mark! Ha! He said a punctuation!

Yes I know, it’s not funny. It’s not even close to being funny. But at the time I sure thought I was. And of course, no one knew what the hell I was laughing at. Slouching low in my chair, I let the awkward moment run its course.

I told Mark after class why I was laughing. He was actually more amused than I thought he would be and decided that if it ever occurred again, he would promptly jump to his feet and yell out “exclamation point!” It sure would have been awesome for him and I. Alas, the situation never came up again, which is probably a good thing.

I also worked with Mark at McDonald’s for a while during high school. I once convinced him to say to every customer coming through the drive-thru speaker during his shift, “Hi welcome to McDonald’s! My favorite band is Van Halen! What’s yours?”

He was later fired for a different, non-related infraction that I would prefer not to disclose here.

The end.