My Uncle Mike

My Uncle Mike is on my mind these days, so here are my favorite Uncle Mike stories.

Uncle Mike's name is David Morgan Carmichael. He's been Mike as long as anyone can remember. He swears that Grandpa got hammered one night and admitted that they started calling him Mike because they had a DOG named Mike that they really loved. So my brother Mike is sort of named after Uncle Mike and after Mom's maiden name (Carmichael). So now my brother is named after an uncle who is named after a dog.

Uncle Mike is the one who got us all in trouble at my grandpa's funeral. Grandpa's obituary had listed a brother, Dudley. He didn't have a brother Dudley. He had a brother Delbert (he had 7 brothers total, but they got all the other names right!). There had been some talk for a couple of days among the family about the mysterious and previously-unknown Dudley.

Right before the funeral started, this little old man came shuffling in. Looked like he could hardly walk himself. 30 seconds before the funeral starts, Uncle Mike leans over and stage whispers "It's Uncle Dudley!" Our only hope is that everyone thought we were wracked with sobs, when we were actually laughing our asses off.

He got paid back though. After the service, all the little old ladies came up the middle aisle and since Uncle Mike was on the end, he got whopped in the back of the head with their little elbow-strapped purses. He swore he had a concussion from the purses by the time it was over. Grandpa would have loved it, actually.