My aunt Jocelyn had a little tag in the glove compartment of her car that had "DUMP" written on it. She just pulled it out and handed it to us without saying anything. Needless to say, I busted up in a fit of laughter, because not only was it so completely random, the word "DUMP" is just funny to me. Yeah.

She explained that it served as a reminder for my uncle Max for the days he had to take the trash to the dump. So as we were driving along, Dad took the little sign and started holding it up in the window at passing cars, pointing at it as if it were an important message...

This one poor woman, who was on her cell phone, put DOWN her phone, with the most baffled expression on her face, and mouthed the words "I'm sorry..?" I can just imagine her going home to her husband that night, "Honey, I had the most strange thing happen today.... This large, red-faced man in the back of a car was holding a 'DUMP' sign up at me...."

Then, the guy in the car behind that lady had this disturbed look on his face as he tried to figure out what the sign said and what it meant, and his son next to him was LAUGHING hysterically (this all happened in about ten seconds). We then passed the lady again (I know she saw me dying laughing in the back seat) and went on our way.

I told this story to Tree a few nights ago and said, "Can you imagine? This big red-faced guy holding up a little tag that says 'DUMP' (while mouthing the word 'dump') and pointing at the sign..." and she said "I picture your dad like that all the time. That's like... Mal's Dad: 'Red-face guy with 'dump' sign'."

Hey that could be like, his Indian name! "Red-face. With Dump Sign."

As Jocelyn and Max were driving us to the airport on our last day in North Carolina, Jocelyn handed me the DUMP sign and said "Okay Mallory, since you love it so much, here's a little souvenier for you!"