Personal Narrative: My Uncle John

My Uncle John, my father’s older brother, and my Aunt Thellen have been married together for 35 coming up on 36 years. However, they were not always together and they didn’t always know one another. When my Uncle first met his wife it was their freshman year of college. They were on a retreat in a state park, it was just a small group over a weekend. They knew who they were but other than first impressions they were strangers. His first impression of her was that she was a very pretty and smart girl. His younger brother Morten, was eight at the time of God’s Spell. He went to a rehearsal one time and told John to “dance with the pretty one”. Thel’s first impression of John was that “he was adorable at the very beginning, therefore, he would …show more content…
Meeting my family, or as we call ourselves “The Gallagher Clan” is a lot to take in. I have never had the fear of throwing my significant other into the playful fray that is my family. Although I have witnessed it, through my siblings and cousins, and it is hilarious. This did not occur for John and Thel, however, due to the fact that Thel had met them all before. John would always bring friends home from college to hang out. While his mother encouraged the big rowdy-hungry college men into the home, she always gave the girls in the group “the fisheye.” So when John got around to just bringing her home to meet the folks, she already had. It was more of a formality than anything else. When it came to John’s turn to meet her family things were a little different. He had known who her father was, since he was the dean of the college, at that time, they both attended. The rest of the family, however, was very large what with ten children and the parents it was a very different dinner for him. The lifestyle of the family was a culture shock to John, “The Gallaher house was a very adult orientated place, whereas Thel’s was child orientated.” John only had two younger brothers and a younger sister. While they still outnumbered their parents, family gatherings was when the adults were in numbers. Family gathering for the Gallaghers are not once or twice a year, every occasion we get to see each other we take. That means holiday’s, birthday’s, and just because there is not anything else to do. Being Irish just makes it all really fun, and turns St. Patricks day from a minor celebration into a major holiday. It was not until later in their marriage that John had heard of a story that Thel’s cousin you say. It was about “the side hill Gallaghers” and how they were these scary horrid people who should not be mingled with. “So imagine my shock as to what her mother had thought when she first met me.” I