One small tug for mankind……

I feel it’s time that I step up and take credit for introducing one of the oldest jokes in America to a new audience in a country that was a part of the former Soviet Union, Ukraine. 

On my last trip Ukraine, visiting with the family and friends of my wife, I had the opportunity to pull the oldest gag I know of, the famous “Pull My Finger” routine, probably passed (so to speak) from uncles to nephews since the caveman days.  

I’m sure that my buildup of gas on that day, was due to the food I’d been eating for a few days, borscht being the prime suspect. So, feeling the, uh… pressing need to step outside and relieve myself of said gas, I motioned for my 14 year old nephew-in-law to step out on the balcony with me for a minute.

He wasn’t clear on what this was about, and because of a language barrier I couldn’t explain it, so we just walked out the door. He wasn’t sure if what I was motioning to him about meant for him, but he took the chance and translating my sign language, pulled on my finger.

Wham…Blam…Thank you Sam-O-Var!!! No “silent but deadly” fart there, it was more like the old fashioned mid-West American “barn burner” variety.

Sasha was doubled over in laughter.  After a few minutes his eyes stopped watering (from the joke, not the fart), and we were able to go back inside to have lunch, which of course included borscht. After about 20 minutes, I saw him motion to his father to step out on the balcony, and the “rite of passage” took on a new meaning there, in a small town a few hundred kilometers East of Kiev. 

And that’s the way it was, meanwhile, back in the USA……