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Every marriage should have ground rules laid out early on to avoid conflict. Sometimes it’s not the bride or the groom who lays out the rules. This is the story of how some rules are laid down by someone other than the married couple.
When our oldest daughter, Tonya, got married, her husband was working for the city police department. Poppy, her dad was on the city council at the time so her husband was, in a way, working for her dad. At least that’s how her husband thought about it. When they were dating, they were both working at the police department. It was against the rules for police department employees to date each other so they dated in secret. Marc didn’t know that Tonya was Poppy’s daughter. Now Poppy was well known by all the officers because he was on the city council and because he was often called by officers due to his job as a Juvenile Office. One night they were on a date and talking about work and Tonya says something about her dad like Marc should know him. Marc asked her who her dad was, so she tells him. Marc looks at her and says, “DAN IS YOU DAD?” Tonya said that Marc looked like he wanted to jump out a window or something.
Well, later they get married and she is expecting her first baby. They have an apartment about 10 miles north of where we live. One night after Marc has worked the 3 pm to 11 pm shift, finished up his paperwork, and driven home. Its well after midnight and Tonya tells him she’s craving banana popsicles and asks him to drive back into town and get her some. He refuses; he’s just gotten home and is tired. Well, this upsets Tonya so she says, “I’ll call my Daddy and he’ll bring me some.” Marc picks up the phone and says, “Just call your Daddy then.”, and dials the phone for her. Marc just knows that no one would go out in the middle of the night to bring someone banana popsicles.
In the middle of the night we get a call from Tonya. She is craving banana popsicles and could her daddy bring her one? Well, without question Poppy gets dressed and goes to find banana popsicles for the princess. On his way to her house, it hits him that she has a husband who should be doing this kind of thing now. After finding the popsicles and as he’s driving, he gets angrier that his princess would have to call him to bring her something that she is craving because her husband has gotten her pregnant and won’t go get her what she wants. By the time he gets to her house, he’s really peeved. So, he knocks on the door and guess who opens it? Marc! According to Marc, Poppy has a look on his face that says, “You are not the man my baby should have married if you won’t go out and get her whatever she wants whenever she wants it.” According to Poppy Marc has a look on his face that says, “I’m screwed.” Tonya hugs her daddy and thanks him. Poppy says, “If you need anything else, Baby, you just call me.” As he says this, he’s looking at Marc just daring him to say something; like he’s the lowest thing that ever crawled on this Earth. As of that night, we have never gotten a call from Tonya requesting Poppy to bring her anything. But one can often see Marc at the super center after midnight picking up various non-emergency items; at least, non-emergency unless you’re a princess.