When Laird White tells people her father was a minister, she says she can see in their eyes that they're imagining her as a kid, constantly on her knees, praying, singing hymns, and memorizing psalms. Are they right? No. "In truth," she says, "I grew up standing with my siblings in our kitchen, or someone's living room, singing very funny (and sometimes a bit off-color) songs my minister-father had collected - no hymns included." While growing up, "Dad's church" became a part of Laird's family and often the stage for what she called "Rascal Religion." Even after one of his kids played a prank in church, her father would stifle a laugh. His parenting was warm; her mother's -arctic. Humor and serious poetry became Laird's armor when facing her mother, bats in a barn, meanness in her medieval boarding school, and the roaring sixties with its badly-behaving-bosses. When she finally married the right man, she was no longer "Laird Trowbridge-the minister's daughter"-but Laird White, married to a "fun guy" and mother of two wonderful daughters-all blessed with humor. Laird even got paid, (amazing ), for her humor when writing parodies and skits for the very popular Inn Cabaret in Princeton, New Jersey. Like all of us, Laird's been through some crazy, scary, tough times but she still writes funny songs, meaningful poetry and now-this book. https: //www.lairdtwhite.com/