My sister-in-law Marion had an offbeat sense of humor. When a boyfriend gave her a book she said, “Thank you. I'll put it with my other book” putting to rest any thoughts he might have that she was an intellectual as he was.

Marion was a beautician and years ago there was a promotional saying “Blondes have more fun.” When she was asked if blondes really did have more fun, her answer was “Only dirty blondes.”

She was at a dinner at our house and my dad and his brother were also there. Right before they left they noticed a lot of earthworms on the property and since they were both fishermen, they asked me for a couple of cans to put them in to save for their next fishing trip. Later Marion said, “I'm leaving now so you can give me my can of worms.”

When my daughter started working for my son who had his own business she asked if he had a dental plan. He said, “Yes, brush your teeth twice a day.” When he hired a new computer operator who was allergic to cats, there was a problem since they had an office cat. Mike's secretary said they'd have to keep him outside. Another employee said, “But how can he operate the computer from out there?”

When my grandson, John was a child, he had a friend over for lunch. His friend asked if they would be going to the libary later, John corrected him saying, “It's not libary, it's library.”

When my daughter asked his friend what flavor ice cream he wanted for dessert, he said strawberry and then corrected himself, “I mean strawbrary.”

My husband Jim had a great sense of humor. He also didn't like to admit it when he didn't know the meaning of something. He was asked by a friend who was kidding around with him if he knew where the erogenous zone was and Jim replied, “I think it's somewhere in South Hackensack.”

When I was taking some time getting out of a tight parking space at work, someone who I didn't even know came out of the building and offered his help. When I told him I didn't need any help, he got very authoritative saying, “Get out of the car.” I complied and the man said, “Oh a standard shift. I don't know how to operate a standard shift. I just couldn't help myself when I laughed.

At that same office I was a girl Friday for a boss who had a sense of humor. Jesus was the name of one of our truck drivers. He would often call my boss when he was in line at another company waiting to unload. My boss would call someone he knew at that company and get Jesus to the front of the line.

My boss happened to be Jewish and he got a big kick out of it the day I told him that if Jesus called him one more time I thought he should convert. Another time one of our clients whose company name was Life Button called and told me that he had to talk to my boss right away. I said to Frank “John has to speak to you right away. It's a matter of life or button.” They both cracked up over that.

Even in hard times it is good to maintain a sense of humor.