I was remembering this crazy little anecdote today and laughing to myself. You know, that is how you can tell you are getting old, when you think back all those years ago and think of that version of yourself as a distant friend you miss sometimes, but I digress.
This must have happened back in 2001,2002 at the latest. I was sitting in the truck with both my uncles somewhere north of phoenix arizona. Back then, don't ask me precisely how, I ended up traveling there to look for work and ended up digging trenches for a living to install phone cable. Honestly, I don't think back and feel an ounce of regret for those poor choices, since they along with many others have shaped who I am today.
The work routine was beginning to get stale to say the least, waking up 5 am to work for 10,11 hours straight, get back to the cheapest motel we could find, eat rice mixed with tuna cans, sleep, rinse and repeat. Maybe that is why my uncles and I started talking about random topics, things that had nothing to do with the task at hand.
I should note that in the latino culture, we are very respectful of our older relatives, to the point where we don't correct them even if they are wrong. That is to say, that if my grandma for example was to say something silly yet benign, any of us, her grandchildren, would let it be without giving it a second thought. This kind of hierarchy applies just about everywhere, and it might be the reason as to why latin families tend to stick together, but I digress.
We are sitting on the truck having just picked up more fuel for the little tractor we were using for the jobs and oil as well. I don't remember exactly the type of oil it was, it's been too long, but I do remember it being considerably lighter than the one we had bought before. The nerd in me, simply because I was trying to make casual conversation with my uncles who both looked tired and run down from the heavy work, said casually: The gallon of oil we bought must be considerably less dense than the last one we bought, it's way lighter...
A two second silence followed and one of my uncles turns towards me and says: "It's one gallon... it's gonna weigh what a gallon weighs" - At this point I mentally short circuited, I mean, having heard such ignorant remark, even if coming from my uncle who I love and respect, I tried to bite my tongue but could not "Gallon is a measurement of volume, not weight... that makes no sense... "
It was at this point in time that my uncle started laughing as if I had said the best of jokes. He turned to his older brother and with utmost conviction remarked "Can you believe Cabezon (how they refer to me)? He thinks gallons have different weights or something!"
I turned to my other uncle, waiting for him to back me up on this one, after all what I had said was very simple and common knowledge. All of the sudden my older uncle started to laugh too, and I thought he was on my side, laughing at how silly his younger brother was being. Then he said "how ignorant you are Cabezon (again me), I can't believe you don't know how much a gallon weighs and you went to college and all" They both continued laughing, since they had for all intents and purposes rekt their nephew.
I'm sitting there, amidst the twilight zone or something, wondering how this was happening, how two grownups, to people I love and respect, could be so confused about something so simple. The laughter finally died down, and believe it or not, I never brought the gallon argument up again. Why? What for? Who wins?
Maybe when the gallon story turns 20 years old, and if there is a beer or two to lubricate the confrontation I will bring it up again. Now we got google, and truth is on my side... But then again, the story is still fun and it still makes me smile, so why not leave it be.
