Tim’s witty humor showed up around the third grade. I thought his responses were due to the fact that he saw the world differently and so would respond to “the other ” meaning of a word. This made him a hit with his classmates but not so much with his teachers. One day he asked me why the teacher was mad if all the kids were laughing. An honest question from someone who wasn’t trying to be disruptive, He was just giving an answer as he saw it.

Tim was in cub scouts and a family friend was the cub leader. Tim would be disruptive by telling jokes or silly answers. Vicky , who had two boys of her own, “punished” him one day by having him dig a square whole of a specific size with a spoon. She told me later that just digging the hole didn’t seem like a complete project so she had him bury dog poop.