I'm the only one. Everyone else is lame.

I grew up in a strict ultra conservative Mormon family. One of my brothers as a kid rebelled. He'd try to refuse to go to church, but my dad would go into his room, close the door an although I never saw what happened you could hear furniture moving across the hardwood floors and what sounded like a beating. It was probably why I just went through the motions instead of rebelling myself.

So, when my brother hit his teens he got into drugs and alcohol and he stole from the rest of us... that is when he bothered to come home. I thin he only came home to steal stuff.

So, he barely graduated high school. I think he was just passed on because his teachers didnt' want ot have to deal with him. Then he joined the army, and was inroduced to a whoel new range fo drugs. Once when he was home he told a story aobut he and some of his platoon dressed up in KKK outfits to scare the sergeant. He denies havign doen this now, but he was braggign and thought it was pretty funny at the time.

So, he gets out of hte Army and goes on a mission for the Mormon church. I have heard he got drunk, had sex with women he was tryign to convert and he smoked whiel on his mission, all of which should have gotten him sent home, but that didn't happen.

So after his mission he goes back and marries one of hte woman he had sex with while on his mission. It turns out she suffers from fetal alcohol syndrome, because he mother was a drunk, but anyway he mind is that of a person in grade school. He goes back into th army becuse he cant' support the kids they have any other way. They visite dmy parenst and she stolemoney from my parents. Specifically she stole collectable silver coins and spent them on candy and potato chips.

So, eventually my brother divorces her. She was Native American so the kids went to her. My parents spent their life savings so he could get custody. For several years, he had custody, but his kids stayed at the house of one of my sisters, because he couldn't take care of them.

So, he remarries. Thsi time he married a control freak, who manipulated him. By now he had gone into the National Guard, as a way to get pay and not serve full time. He ended up divorcing her after a couple of years, because he felt like under church rules she shoudl be subservient to her. She did drive him back to drinking and drugs.

So, when he was around 35, the Army sent him to a VA recovery unit. He finally got off drugs and alcohol.

What is funny is that now he is even more of a hard core conservative rigid Mormon than our father was. He became exactly what he rebelled against.

We, the other five siblings, still view him as the "black sheep" of hte family and nobody in our4 family trusts him.

Characters in my family? Why yes, and he is me.

My sister, a retired special ed. teacher, watches Long Island Medium.
Despite my explaining to her how these snake charmers work, she won't have it.
Suspension of disbelief? Cognitive dissonance?

My dad and both his younger brothers. Here is a snack of a story. My Uncle Gerry robbed a bank in Reno NV, 1967, got shot in the bank fleeing the scene and has been paralyzed from the mid chest down ever since. He is in his mid 70s and wheelsv around the local mall and challenges everyone to armwrestle in between playing keno.

Sounds as though your grandfather is "anal retentive". My older brother is the cameleon, ie. you don't see him 'cause he isn't there. My sister's oldest son is the comedian, though his "humor" isn't always funny. My younger brother is a religious zealot who goes around greeting everyone, "Commander!" (???) That brother's wife is the "shy" hugger, ie. she presents her one arm in such a way it barely touches you and the rest of her doesn't go anywhere near you. AND I can't leave me out, the "black sheep". I'm the eccentric LIBERAL uncle. I'm typing this in the a.m. wondering what I will "see" when I get there.

My family would tell you I'm that character, usually know as the black sheep of the family, or odd ball, fruitcake, village idiot and many other unpleasantries! It just shows we all see differently and should learn to except these differences as long as no one is getting harmed.

I think I'm Winnie the Pooh on a diet and my mom is a perfectionist who is crazy with the details. My father is more like the husband Jim in the show "according to Jim" . My brothers are characters that has not been invested in TV.

I'm not sure I have anyone nearly so entertaining in my family as you have in yours. My father, maybe, because he is in his 80s and you would think he'd be set in his ways, but he starts doing things a new way and then that's the way it must be done from here on out. (It might just be a mild form of senility.) My mother and half siblings might be worth a followup comment, but it will have to wait until I am awake. I'm fading fast.