Every family has at least one of these people. My grandfather is a Grade A smart ass. He also likes to suck back more than his share of wine. This was ignored by my family as he lived out of state and only came to visit us in Utah once or twice.

On one occasion he was a little tipsy and telling his slightly off color jokes while laughing like a jackass. I must have been about eight years old and told him he had a funny laugh. He kept right on laughing and said "Not as funny as you look! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" I started to giggle at that but my stepmother gave me the look. She slowly shook her head and told me "That's what alcohol does to people. Don't ever drink or you'll end up like him." I can't help but think there's worse things to become than a goofy old man who enjoys teasing his grandchildren.

You know, I've been surrounded most of my life with people that were afraid to laugh lest it would grieve the spirit. As the years progressed these folks look much, much older than they really are.

When I tell people my age, some are surprised that I'm a bit older than I look and I contribute that to laughter, and lots of it.

So I say, laugh to your heart's content and laugh loud.

ST

None of my dad's family have ever been members of the church, but his BIL, my uncle, had two hobbies; Genealogy and wine making.

When I was in my late teens, said uncle was traveling to Europe a lot for business and would always include side-trips to look up old family records. He would also use the Genealogy library in SLC to tie things together.

When I was in high school, my brother played in the Utah Youth Symphony and had concerts in the tabernacle. One night, Uncle George was coming into town on the night of a concert. I left the tabernacle at intermission and drove out to the SLC airport to collect Uncle George. Our arrangement was to meet in the visitor center when the concert was over.

Uncle George didn't even recognize me when I greeted him -- he was drunk off his ass. But, we collected his bags and headed back downtown. We sat down on a bench near the Adam and Eve statue. He promptly passed out and fell over.

I spent the next 40 minutes fending off missionaries who wanted us to go on a tour. Great memories in the visitor center.

When I was one of his students, his office bookshelf held both the scriptures and Mad Magazine.