Embarassing

My younger sister Dona and I were standing in the lobby of the nicest hotel I had ever seen. I was 22 years old at the time and she was 19; neither of us were that worldly. It was August of 1974 and our father had just exchanged wedding vows with his second wife at the St. John’s Presbyterian church. The reception was being held in the Grand Ballroom of the Galleria Oaks Hotel in Houston.

Many of our out-of-town relatives and friends were checking into the hotel, and Dona and I were just hanging out while they were being processed. The ceiling of lobby was lavishly gilded and displayed four massive chandeliers hanging down from the three stories over head. I had my neck stretched back as far as it could go, while ogling this elegant décor. Within seconds of looking up, Dona gave me a light, playful karate chop to my exposed throat.

As an auto reflex, in another karate like move, my leg came up and out toward where she was standing. I landed a flat footed blow to her upper thigh, and while she didn’t fall over, she was shifted three feet to the right on the highly buffed marble floors. To the people in that lobby it must have looked like a Three Stooges routine.

We were both severely chastised by our older sister for embarrassing her and our whole family with such idiotic antics. To pacify her we feigned remorse, but as soon as she walked away we began laughing uncontrollably.

This all took place before the champagne started flowing, so there were possibly more embarrassing moments that evening, but I am drawing a blank on the rest of the night!