Light-up Bow Tie o’ the Day enjoyed a family celebration at The Timbermine at the mouth of Ogden Canyon yesterday. The occasion was to celebrate (late) my oldest sister’s 50th wedding anniversary. Betty and Kent met at Weber State University in 1967. It was love at first English class.
You can see from these photos that I’m not the only one in my family who lives to entertain. The woman with her back to me is Betty. She is being a good party honoree and entertaining those at her table. In the first photo, she does take a few seconds to notice Kent and their daughter Angie performing for my camera. And by the time I snapped the next photo, she has already turned her attention back to her chatting duties with the other guests.
BT (As she prefers to be called. And I call her Mercedes.) is like Suzanne. They notice the antics we perform around them, but they take it in stride. They notice, they appreciate, they move on. Despite their own incredible humor, Suzanne and BT also shine as “the straight man.” Every great comedy routine needs one. Their reactions and/or non-reactions can make or break the joke. The straight man’s reaction is the cherry on top of the jokester dessert. It is the “all that and a bag of chips” which elevates the comedy routine.
In the second photo, you’ll notice Kent pretending to fiddle with his imaginary bow tie. As Suzanne and I were saying our goodbye’s and leaving the yesterday’s festivities, Kent sidled up to me and asked if I could get him a bow tie like mine. See, Kent drives a school bus, and he wants to wear one to entertain his bus kids. This is exactly who Kent is. He’s surrounded by– and joke-chatting with– half a billion members of his own family, at a landmark celebration for himself and BT, and he still has enough heart-capacity to think of how he can entertain his bus kids. For a guy like that, I’d give the bow tie off my neck. Which I did. It didn’t faze me one iota to part with Bow Tie o’ the Day and its three speeds o’ flashing.
Laurel & Hardy. Burns & Allen. Martin & Lewis. Rowan & Martin. Penn & Teller. BT & Kent. They are all members of the comedy duo Hall o’ Fame.
