A Raffish Family

The consolation of having reared and educated seven sons may not be riches per se, but the wellspring of memories never runs dry. My posts will mostly concern what people ask me about most. What was it like to raise a family of seven boys?  These stories and musings will be random and journalistic. You might be interested to know that I write under a pseudonym for many reasons, but chief among them is not to protect the innocent,* but to protect the guilty. By writing a blog, I already anticipate a hammering from close relations. My franco-american husband quotes some famous French writer, "Les gens heureux n'ont pas d'histoire."** Well, it's not that we are not all quite happy. We mostly are. 

What I think my husband meant was that if everything went perfectly we would have nothing worth telling. I have a cousin who is famous throughout my vast family for writing the longest, most boring Christmas letters ever. One must read them just in case, you know, but only a few paragraphs at a time. (Read & Wretch.)  Once finished the reader should know that this family is the most successful, richest, beautiful, brilliant, pious, deserving, well-traveled, healthiest, atheletic, patriotic, desirable, you name it, family in the(ir) world. 

Once long ago in our world, when I was laboring over my thesis, which my husband faithfully proof-read, he stopped at the adjective raffish in a quoted passage & asked, "What exactly does this word mean?" I knew what it meant but I preferred the authority of our tattered, permanently borrowed, Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary. Paraphrased punctuation: Ray-fish 1) Marked by flashy vulgarity or crudeness 2) Marked by a careless unconventionality. The first definition we would never own up to, but to the second, always. Raffish certainly struck my husband's French fancy, hence, to familiars my husband had fun claiming that we are a raffish family. He doesn't mention it quite as often these days, but there was a time when this bon mot*** was his mantra. We were nothing if not RAFFISH. 

So, by means of introduction, our secret is out. If you are in sync with careless unconventionality you might enjoy. And if you aren't our stories will provide a bonanza of self-edification. 

* "The names have been changed to protect the innocent." Famous phrase that all children of the '50s learned by watching Dragnet starring Jack Webb.

** "Happy people have no story."

***good word