One of the solid rules in The Haasienda was in the bathroom where there was one drawer in the sink’s vanity to hold three rolls of toilet paper. The sign in the drawer, which still remains in place to this day after eighteen years, reads, “if you take one roll out please replace” with another roll from the hall closet.

My third son always seemed to forget or ignore this stricture.

Shortly after my fourth son, a Navajo Indian, arrived I was in my study when I heard the bathroom door close. At the moment, I didn’t know which of the two sons then living at home had entered the bathroom. Suddenly, I heard the desk chair on the second floor quickly scoot back. Within seconds, I heard footsteps running down the stairs. I knew it was Jose who had remembered to replenish the bathroom door but a tad bit late.

Jose rushed into the hallway and began grabbing rolls of toilet paper from the closet. He knocked on the bathroom door.

“Quintin, do you have TP in there?”

“Why would I have a teepee in here?”

“No! Not a teepee… TP! Toilet paper!”

Quintin commanded, “Why don’t you just call it ‘toilet paper?’”

“Because here in Ohio we call it TP.”

“Well, back where I’m from teepee is something you live in!”

As an adoptive father, I had some incredibly funny moments. This is probably one of my favorites.