A Family’s Sense Of Humor Is Now Being Shared With Those Who Enjoy A Good Laugh

By Shannon Hicks

Humor has always been a trait of Brad Taylor’s family.  His grandmothers always had a good line for every occasion, and his aunts and uncles were always telling jokes as he was growing up. His father was a good storyteller, and as he heard more and more of his family’s stories and jokes, Brad too began to become a fair raconteur himself.

Now his kids — Brad and wife Fran are the parents of two college-age students — have picked up the family sense of humor. One of the best stories the Taylors share about their daughter Kate is of the time when she was asked, at an early age, to “count backward from ten.” The youngster passed right over the preposition, spun around in her chair to face away from the rest of the family, and counted “One, two, three…”

The Taylors’ son John also provided his share of laughs for the family while growing up. “Time me!” was an expression the young John would shout to anyone nearby. He would then run away and then back at top speed over random distances on different days, always insisting on being timed.

About six years ago the Newtown resident began writing down some of the stories and jokes with which he had been growing up. As his collection grew he began dividing the work into loose age groups, and eventually decided to go ahead and put together a book. In March of this year, the result of a few years of work was published by Sunstone Press, a New Mexico-based publisher, and The Family Joke Book, a slim paperback collection by Mr Taylor, is now available in area book stores and on the Internet.

It’s a fun little collection, filled with one-liners and silly riddles, knock-knock jokes, interesting facts, bumper stickers that have been spotted over the years, puzzlers, and even silly quotes from athletes and other famous people. It’s all good, clean fun.

The illustrations in Family Joke Book were done by Hank Blaustein, a retired New York City school teacher whose drawings have appearing in The New Yorker and The New York Times, among other locations. Brad met Mr Blaustein years ago, when the two men were co-directors of a Montessori school where both men had children attending.

“I had the idea of using him in my mind while putting together this book,” Brad said.

Brad admits The Family Joke Book is more of an assembly of things than writing, but it was a project that took a lot of effort, fine-tuning, and looking back and laughing. “It was worth the effort,” he said.

Brad recently retired from an investment banking career that had him living in Venezuela and Hong Kong for seven years, as well as extensive traveling. While he and wife Fran have settled somewhat in Newtown and both are in their retirement years, neither is letting their mind take any kind of break.

Brad Taylor has found research to be an enjoyable effort. He is currently working on developing a list of likely students who attended Hanover District School, which operated in Newtown from 1790 to 1921 and which is now part of the home in which Brad and his wife live. The former one-room schoolhouse was converted into a full residence in the late 1960s; the Taylors have owned the home since 1987, although they only became full-time Newtown residents last year.

(The Taylors’ home is on Newtown Historical Society’s Homes and Gardens Tour this year, which is being presented Saturday, July 8. Mr Taylor will be sharing his research findings with visitors during the tour.)

In August, Brad Taylor’s byline will appear in American Indian Art Magazine over an article he has been researching and writing concerning the little-known Native American artist Albert Lugan, who was active during the 1920s.

“He may have done 1,000 paintings in his lifetime, but there is not a lot of information on him,” Brad said recently. The majority of Mr Lugan’s oil paintings were sold directly to Taos Pueblo, making locating them extremely difficult. Mr Taylor persevered, though, and discovered during his research that Mr Lugan’s work is also included in seven museum collections, “but still no one knew anything about him.”

As had been done when he was recalling things he had heard from family and friends while compiling The Family Joke Book, Brad went back to the source when he hit a brick wall with the Albert Lugan story: He went back to Taos Pueblo and found nieces and nephews of Mr Lugan, who provided the meat of the artist’s background. A 78-year old nephew offered a collection of photographs and plenty of oral history; it turned out this nephew had been “pretty much raised” by Mr Lugan, Mr Taylor said.

Brad Taylor is working on research projects on a number of subjects that interest him. And like the results of his projects have shown, research can run from artist biographies to collecting anything that makes people laugh.

The Family Joke Book is now being carried at Borders Books in Danbury. Most bookstores can order the book from its publisher, as can interested readers, by calling Sunstone Press directly at 800/243-5644. The book is also available from Amazon.com. Cost for the 60-page collection is $8.85. The book is suitable for all ages.