ENID — Do you laugh enough? Think about it.

My friend, Merry Mary, gives me a happy phone call nearly every morning. I hardly know how to start my day without our laughter and happy visits. When she was gone on vacation, I  missed her because we did not have our daily “wake-up call” when we both had a hearty laugh. From the time she says “hello” we are laughing. Everything we talk about is funny and amusing. We never gossip or talk bad about people. We just catch up on  the news and have a good story, joke or just laugh. Laughter is contagious and good for us any time of day.

As you all know, Jim goes to rehab for his asthma and breathing problems. Everyone is fun and caring. No one whines or complains. Everyone is so encouraging, helpful and cheerful. We always feel so much better after seeing everyone and doing our exercises. It is amazing how laughter and happy visiting can cheer a person up.

When Jim was sick, it would have been easy to become depressed and down. But we rented funny movies and watched them on television. Or we pulled out old records of Jonathan Winters and laughed until our stomaches ached. When Jim was in rehab, they presented laughter therapy.  Each would give their pain level at the beginning of the session, and after having laughed, their pain level dropped. We all know being cheerful, happy and positive gets us through many medical problems. 

Thankfully, I was raised in a happy family. We laughed at everything. We found joy in work and play. We sang when we weren’t talking. Our grandparents and parents were all positive, happy people in spite of hard times and daily struggles.   

When our family gets together, we laugh a lot. We recall stories of when we were kids and tell of the funny things that happened. Even the tragic things seem to become funny over the years, and we begin to see humor. We tell about making fudge when our parents left to go to town. That in itself it not funny, but the way we hid the fudge pans and evidence is funny, as we now know it was no surprise to Mother. She had to have known because the house smelled of cooked fudge when she returned and the sugar canister was empty. She never said a word all those years. 

Laughter is an important part of life. Humans are the only animals that can laugh, perceive humor and see themselves as ridiculous on occasion. Laughter presupposes personality.

It is a terrible feeling to think people are laughing at us. There is an easy way to correct it. We need to laugh at ourselves first, then others laugh with us and not at us. When things don’t go as planned, laugh it off and get on with your life.

Some jokes are not amusing. If a joke hurts anyone, it is not funny. Jokes at the expense of others lose their humor quickly. Just because an audience is laughing does not mean what is being said is appropriate or truly funny. We need to weigh our words before spitting them out and think how the other person might feel. We also need to weigh what we laugh at.

Have you ever gotten the giggles when everything was funny? Those giggles and hysterical laughter are triggered by anything, everything or nothing, and always at the most serious, inappropriate times. But we just cannot seem to help ourselves. Later, when we try to remember what was so terribly funny, we don’t find it funny at all.    

I love to laugh. Laughter is good medicine and can even heal diseases. The ability to laugh and see the funny side of situations is a gift, but can be developed and cultivated. A cheerful, positive, comical attitude is  like sunshine on a cloudy day. People who bring that ray of sunshine into others’ lives cannot keep it from themselves.  We never get eyestrain from looking at the bright side of life. Happiness adds and multiplies as it is divided with others.

Mealtime is happy time. It aids digestion and makes the rest of the day go better. This easy dessert makes any meal a happy occasion. I know because I used to eat it at Grandma’s house. 



Noodle Pudding

1⁄2 pound broad noodles

1⁄4 cup butter

3 eggs, separated

3⁄4 cup sugar

11⁄2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 apples, sliced

1⁄2 teaspoon salt

1⁄2 cup raisins



Cook noodles and drain. Quickly add butter and stir gently. Add sugar, cinnamon apples, raisins, salt and egg yolks. Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites. Pour in 9x9 baking dish. Bake at 325 degrees about 45 minutes until golden brown.

Laugh and the world laughs with you; cry and you cry alone. Think about it. 



Send your comments to: Peggy Goodrich, Food For Thought, P.O. Box 1192, Enid, OK 73702.