Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Three Kid Night







I mentioned the band name “Three Dog Night” last Sunday at dc… who knows exactly why I mentioned it but anyhow my friend, Nancy, emailed me this week and brought me up to speed on its origin. The name "Three Dog Night" supposedly refers to an expression meaning a night so cold that one needs to sleep while embracing three dogs.

I have experienced cold nights before. Not here in Phoenix, of course, but growing up in Iowa I did. The coldest night I remember as a boy was one night when the wind chill was something like 40 or 50 below zero. We didn't have dogs... I did have a few hamsters though... I guess I could have curled up with them. It happened to be the night that my brother and his girlfriend were coming home to visit us from college and their car broke down. Good timing on his part.

There are no “Three Dog Nights” here in Phoenix but I do have three children and there have been on more than one occasion whether it’s cold or not outside a “three kid night” in our bed. For those keeping score at home that’s five all together in one bed. Your initial thought might be that that’s sweet. But it’s not. Usually on those nights I wind up finding my way to the couch. In fact, a couple of different times my wife and I have given up and moved to the kids beds. So, in the morning we’re in their room and they are in ours.

But I can’t complain… we do have beds to sleep in which is more than many people have. And speaking of my brother (which I did earlier in case you forgot) he had to sleep in a crib until age 7. That’s right. Age 7. (It’s tough to have your friends over and invite them to play in your room when you still sleep in a crib!) Fortunately by the time he had brought his girlfriend (soon to be wife) home from college on that truly “Three Dog Night” my parents had purcahased a real bed for him.

5 comments:

Nancy D. said...

Your friend must be very knowledgeable! :-)

Jonathan Foster said...

if only you knew...

jtc said...

So hearing about your brothers bedding woes has resurfaced all kinds of childhood memories of my own... having two younger brothers and one sister meant that it was always my brothers and I in one room and my sister in her own room(hmm underlining resentment?) The problem was that us boys had bunk beds (the small twin bed kind) meaning that two would have to share the bottom bunk while the other got the top bunk. Now unfortunately I was prone to rolling out of the top bunk so that left me only one option ...face to toes with my youngest brother Jesse until I was about 14 years old ...though some/most nights I would opt for the floor under the bed so that my brother Josh would not jump out of the top bunk onto me and with the hope that maybe my Mom would not see me and forget to get me up for school ... (it never worked)

Jonathan Foster said...

this explains so much to me now about you.

Unknown said...

easy answer on this one.... have a special bed made... double king or something like that...