More Jeff-ness

As per my dad's request, I will relate a couple more Jeff stories - because he was the funniest kid this side of Caleb - who is exactly like him.

When Jeff was small, we went to the Lowell Baptist Church near our house. Well, the family did - I don't think I was born yet. Anyway, Jeff had a line in the Christmas pageant one year. Dad will have to tell you how old he was because I'm not at all sure other than "pretty small." I would say somewhere between 4-6 because Mom and Dad got married when he was almost 4 and I was born when he was 6 and a half. But I'm digressing - He had a line in the Christmas play. The line he was to speak was "Peace on Earth and goodwill to man." When he was small like that, he had a tendancy to mix up his words and letters a bit when he spoke. Squirrel became "skrill" and girl became "gril." (Sidenote: When I was born, Mom told the nurse to come and tell Dad "It's a gril!") When he would say his line, it became "Peace on Earth and willgood to man." The family coached and coached him on this - mostly my Uncle Tony and the day of the pageant arrived. Jeff said his line perfectly but it went something like this: "Peace on Earth and (loud and emphatically) GOOD.WILL. (normal) to man."

The second story also takes place when he's very small. My mom always said he was the most literal kid she'd ever seen. Well, when we were growing up, my Uncle Tony was always around visiting my Granny and he taught each of us to read before we were old enough to go to kindergarten. He was teaching Jeff to read and he said, "Ok. Now say this right behind me." So Jeff got up and stood behind his chair.