Monday, March 23, 2009

Dr. Upchuck

My father had a visiting professor in town, so my mother being the best sort of hostess a man can be married to, they invited the professor to come for dinner. His name was Dr. Upchurch. My sister and I thought that was the funniest name. We were in junior high and at that age, everything seemed funny! The professor's name reminded my sister and me of the word "upchuck". We started giggling and wondering out loud, wouldn't it be funny if we slipped and called him, "Dr. Upchuck?" My mother warned us that if we kept saying that we were going to actually say it in front of Dr. Upchuck... er Upchurch.
I suppose my mother decided to get us out of the house for the afternoon since we had such a bad case of the "sillies". My sister and I sat in the theater watching a movie that I had already seen. (Wish I could remember which movie it was.) The theater was full, so I suppose it was a popular movie of the time. On each side of us sat adults. I remember telling my sister what was about to happen in many of the scenes. We were probably annoying everyone since occasionally someone would look at us. We just giggled. At the end of the movie I told my sister that we better leave since Dr. Upchuck was coming for dinner.
The professor arrived at our home for dinner. My sister insisted she thought he looked familiar. Not to me. As dinner began, the man mentioned that he had been in the movies that afternoon. He also mentioned that he had sat next to a couple of giggly girls, one obviously knowing what was about to happen in the next scene. Ooooops! I remember feeling my face growing very hot. My mother caught on right away. "Would you girls serve the dessert, please?" I suppose she was trying to get us away from an embarrassing situation.
I can't recall all that happened next, but somehow, Dr. Upchurch made a comment about how he had been called "Dr. Upchuck" before. My guess was that he had heard me say that. I might as well have blurted out our name for him during dinner.
Moral of story: You never know who is listening!! Hello Dr. Upchuck where ever you are!! lol