RULES FOR DATING A MARINES
DAUGHTER
Rule One:
If you pull into my driveway and honk you'd better be delivering a
package, because you're sure not picking anything up.
Rule Two:
You
do not touch my daughter in front of me. You may glance at her, so long as you do not peer at anything below her neck. If
you cannot keep your eyes or hands off of my daughter's body, I will remove them.
Rule Three:
I am aware that it is considered fashionable for boys of your age to wear their trousers
so loosely that they appear to be falling off their hips. Please don't take this as an insult, but you and all of your friends
are complete idiots. Still, I want to be fair and open- minded about this issue, so I propose this compromise: You may come
to the door with your underwear showing and your pants ten sizes too big, and I will not object. However, In order to ensure
that your clothes do not, in fact, come off during the course of your date with my daughter, I will take my electric nail
gun and fasten your trousers securely in place to your waist.
Rule
Four:
I'm sure you've been told that in today's world, sex without utilizing a "barrier method" of some kind can
kill you. Let me elaborate, when it comes to sex, I am the barrier, and I will kill you.
Rule Five:
In order for us to get to know each other, we should talk about sports, politics, and
other issues of the day. Please do not do this. The only information I require from you is an indication of when you expect
to have my daughter safely back at my house, and the only word I need from you on this subject is "early."
Rule Six:
I have no doubt you are a popular fellow, with many opportunities
to date other girls. This is fine with me as long as it is okay with my daughter. Otherwise, once you have gone out with my
little girl, you will continue to date no one but her until she is finished with you. If you make her cry, I will make you
cry.
Rule Seven:
As you stand in my front hallway,
waiting for my daughter to appear, and more than an hour goes by, do not sigh and fidget. If you want to be on time for the
movie, you should not be dating. My daughter is putting on her makeup, a process that can take longer than painting the Golden Gate Bridge. Instead of just standing there, why don't you do something useful, like changing the
oil in my car?
Rule Eight:
The following places are not
appropriate for a date with my daughter: Places where there are beds, sofas, or anything softer than a wooden stool. Places
where there are no parents, policemen, or nuns within eyesight. Places where there is darkness. Places where there is dancing,
holding hands, or happiness. Places where the ambient temperature is warm enough to induce my daughter to wear shorts, tank
tops, midriff T-shirts, or anything other than overalls, a sweater, and a goose down parka zipped up to her throat. Movies
with a strong romantic or sexual theme are to be avoided; movies which features chain saws are okay. Hockey games are okay.
Old folks homes are better.
Rule Nine:
Do not lie
to me. I may appear to be a potbellied, balding, middle-aged, dimwitted has-been. But on issues relating to my daughter, I
am the all-knowing, merciless god of your universe. If I ask you where you are going and with whom, you have one chance to
tell me the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I have a shotgun, a shovel, and five acres behind the house.
Do not trifle with me.
Rule Ten:
Be afraid. Be very
afraid. It takes very little for me to mistake the sound of your car in the driveway for a chopper coming in over a rice paddy
outside of Chu Lai. When my Agent Orange or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) starts acting up, the voices in my head
frequently tell me to clean the guns as I wait for you to bring my daughter home. As soon as you pull into the driveway you
should exit your car with both hands in plain sight. Speak the perimeter password, announce in a clear voice that you have
brought my daughter home safely and early, then return to your car. There is no need for you to come inside. The camouflaged
face at the window is mine.
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