An Analysis of Historical Anecdotes

to at-least-partly explain the McQueen family

You might choose to call my family an “average family”. That is to say, it is marvellously unique roughly according to the national average of family uniqueness. Here is a collection of stories of the sort that all families must have. They are the amusing stories, the ones that we don’t want to forget because they remind us of how fun our family has been and why we like each other.

The McQueen family peculiarity can be traced through a number of generations of McQueens. We are aware of it starting at least as far back as “Grandpa” Allan McQueen. He enjoyed seeing the reaction of his guests when they spotted the iron lizards glued to the lounge room ceiling. It rubbed off on the other family members. Dad and Kerry had pet lizards in a lizard pit in the backyard. Nanna sewed a harness so that they could take their pets for a walk. Scott turned his entire bedroom into an “Arabian tent” using purple sheets.

Dad has rubbed off on us. He has occasionally remarked that eccentric people should be admired. As proof of this statement, he has told us of some British nobleman who used to take his money to the bank in a standard gardener’s wheelbarrow, and other such stories. He has thus inspired in us a desire to be remembered, if for nothing else, for our lack of fear of being unconventional: for wearing pyjamas to voting day; for singing cute old songs cheerfully loudly at public events while sober; for being interested in things that normal people are supposed to have no interest in, including insects, physics and fungus.

To my beloved family, please read and enjoy!

To anybody else who might happen to read these, I hope you are both enlightened and entertained.