My Joke

My favorite joke is one on me. It's really a coming of age story and it goes like this:

The year my family moved to California was a hard one involving many sacrifices. When Christmas came around I knew there wouldn't be any big presents for me. That put me in a little funk. We all went shopping at the local variety store and made the most of our meager funds. I bought my handyman dad a screwdriver.
On Christmas morning the funk was worse. Suffering with thirteen year old angst and hormones and disappointment, I came out from my bedroom and threw myself on the couch where I decided to stay and be upset.
I yelled at my brother to leave me alone! My baby sister came to comfort me. Not happening! I complained to the dog. I muttered about life in general. I was determined to be miserable and take the rest of the family down to. They had pancakes, I skipped breakfast. They gathered round the tree, I sat on the couch! Surprisingly, my mom and dad let me wallow in self-pity and soon enough I started to feel a little better without their intervention. Maybe Christmas would not be as bad as I thought.
Somewhere along the line, I started to anticipate my dad unwrapping his gift from me.  A screwdriver! Why had I chosen that?  Well, it fit my budget.  He was always looking for one. Mom said it was a good one. And, an idea was forming...I could make a joke when he unwrapped it.  A grown-up joke! A joke about screwing!
Yup, thirteen and thinking of sex jokes, on Christmas!  But, I hadn't really crossed over the line to 'adult' jokes before.  My dad was the card in our family.  Always able to make a funny pun or humorous aside (not sexy joking...after all, I was the one who discovered that!) But, to mention screwing as a joke?  That would definitely put my humor into the adult category.
From the point where I decided on my joke,  I began having a good time...In fact, I was beating my dad to some obvious humor about other gifts and teasing.  Things were looking up.  Dad seemed a little slow on some of his puns and I easily beat him to the punchlines. This whole Christmas was beginning to be about me on a roll! I was clever, funny, the life of the party. My dad was unusually quiet (maybe he was hormonal?). Then, I asked him to open his present from me. Oh, a screwdriver! Yes! Bet you and mom can have fun with that! Ha ha!  Wink wink! The other kids would never figure out what we adults were talking about!
I expected a retort from dad.  He smiled, grinned to show he got it, but didn't come back with anything.  He was letting me loose! All righty...I could handle that.  And I did. One liners, puns, silly stuff...the family was in stitches and I had a ball! I was the star that Christmas.  and then...the big reveal....
The prized family gift that year was a Wollensak reel-to-reel tape recorder which had been placed under the couch to record the entire four hour Christmas festivitiy and the first sound on the tape is me yelling, "Leave me alone!" So, my coming of age is captured for posterity on tape!  What a present! What a joke!