The time that I laughed the hardest must have been ages ago. Surprisingly enough, it was not even at a clever joke of my uncle's or a snide comment about a famous person. I guess I'd have to call it simply a funny day. It started off normally enough: my father was longing for a little excitement, perhaps on the boat which we'd recently acquired from my grandfather. Since we had nothing better to do, we foolishly agreed to go out for a spin on the lake in the junk heap. We brought our family dog, a coward of a thing who went along simply to be with Dad.

We'd never set foot in the boat before, my dad nevertheless was confident in his ability to launch the craft. I stood on the dock holding a thick rope attached to our legendary boat as my father unspun the winch. The boat didn't budge. He began to push at the bow, harder and harder, until, with a scream, I witnessed the boat rolling backwards, the car with it. My dad briefly attempted to stop the car with his hands, but he quickly changed his mind and ran to safety. I watched the boat smoothly free itself and begin to drift, then I saw the car fall into the water with my brother and dog still inside!

Although my brother's reflexes are somewhat slow, he and Leo, our dog, leapt out of that car faster than you could say "sunken car." And in a way, that's exactly what we had. Water gently lapped at the sliding door of our minivan, and my toppled-over brother lay knee-deep in the cold liquid as the dog plunged into the water from the water-logged vehicle. My dad saved the car from wreckage by stepping on the brake in the nick of time, but the whole scenario certainly tickled my funnybone.

Getting over my initial shock and horror, I began to laugh uncontrollably, bordering on hysteria. My sense of humor may not be as it was, but I sincerely believe that, placed in an identical situation, I would laugh equally hard at the ironic situation my family had once again literally fallen into! n