Like father, unlike son

[atchoum]

It was in the post office: a man and his son were being served right next to me, filling in some official form. The father looked over 50, but his identity card was there and his birthdate showed he was only (!) 46 (makes you think…); his son looked about 13 or 14, blond and boyish, but past puberty. Just as the lady at the counter was explaining something, the father looked down, grabbed his nose and stifled what looked like a massive sneeze, with a “ahh NNGGKKXXXXNG…… ahh !” The lady “blessed him” – it was impossible to ignore ! and they went on with their business, until not a minute after, the son sneezed. But what a difference, completely unstifled, and for good reason : it was a tiny sneeze - “a.. chew” And the lady laughed and said “well, I’ll be next” (but she wasn’t!).Now of course the age difference is probably important here, and probably in time the son’s sneeze will get bigger, BUT, there was a huge difference not just in treatment, but in the violence of the sneeze. It reminded me of something I read a long time ago; a mother mentioning that her 9 year old son already sneezed grossly just like a grown man. So if you are going to have a big sneeze, it can come early in life. Obviously the sneeze genes were different in this case!

[JellyBelly]

Interesting point! Maybe his sneeze WILL grow.

Brilliant descriptions too, thanks for sharing!

[threedaysofrain]

I agree, very wonderful descriptipons! Perhaps his sneeze will grow and change- but maybe it's possible they have very different sneezes? That brings up the interesting point of- do people's sneezes grow and evolve as the grow older, or do they stay somewhat similar over time? Hmmmm.

Thanks for sharing this!

[Sneesee]

Very cute obs! I love when family members sneeze around each other, as long as they aren't MY family members!!!

[liricospinto]

Oooooh, this was great . . . I particularly enjoyed the spelling of the dad's stifle. Delicious!

My last ex was a "big" sneezer, and his two late-teen sons both had very delicate, breathy tttssschhhh! type sneezes . . . maybe they sneezed more like their mother, his ex-wife. Interesting.

[ringsfan02]

Great observation! You don't often get to compare a father's and son's sneeze. A few years ago I was on a backpacking trip with a men's group and in the group was a man in his early 60's and his son who was was 36. I got to hear them both sneeze. The father sneezed a lot more on the trip than his son did, but I heard the younger man sneeze a couple of times. I remember the sneezes were very similar in how they were voiced, and they both sneezed in doubles, but the dads were louder and he sneezed with more gusto. He was definitely less inhabited than his son.

[atchoum]

Oooooh, this was great . . . I particularly enjoyed the spelling of the dad's stifle. Delicious!

My last ex was a "big" sneezer, and his two late-teen sons both had very delicate, breathy tttssschhhh! type sneezes . . . maybe they sneezed more like their mother, his ex-wife. Interesting.

Very interesting! Obviously they did not model themselves on dad for this... but I imagine sneezing is largely something people are not very conscious of, at least the *way* they sneeze.

[liricospinto]

Probably not, but I have observed on more than one occasion that siblings seem to have similar-sounding sneezes. I wonder if there is some genetic component to it . . . people's voices often sound similar in a family, so it seems not entirely unreasonable that other things might sound somewhat similar. Interestingly, my ex and his mother had very similar-sounding sneezes . . . loud, and strongly-voiced with a "shouting" quality.

[Guest lilly munster]

This obs inspired the idea for a fic in me. i will post it soon!