Uncle Brother

The discussion of an uncle brother came up in a conversation with Liz yesterday over a steaming pile of Navratan Korma and Gulab Jamun. While trying to understand the complexities of the rural mid-western family, this is what I came up with: The son is your uncle-brother through your mother (his and your step-sister) and Dad (your father)... thus making him your uncle brother... Please note that the 1st wife must be either deceased or divorced, freeing up Dad to marry his step-daughter... this would in fact make your mother your sister too... however more disturbing that little fact is.


In honor of this discussion I am also including the little ditty written and composed by Shel Silvertein:



Now many many years ago when I was twenty-three
I was married to a widow who was pretty as can be
This widow had a grown-up daughter who had hair of red
My father fell in love with her and soon they too were wed

Oh I'm my own grandpa
I'm my own granpa
It sounds funny I know,But it really is so
Oh I'm my own grandpa

This made my dad my son-in-law and changed my very life
My daughter was my mother 'cause she was my father's wife
To complicate the matter even though it brought me joy
I soon became the father of a bouncing baby boy

My little baby then became a brother-in-law to Dad
And so became my uncle, though it made me very sad
For if he was my uncle, then that also made him br'ther
Of the widow's grown-up daughter who was also my stepmother


Father's wife then had a son who kept them on the run
And he became my grandchild, for he was my daughter's son
My wife is now my mother's mother and it makes me blue
Because altho' she is my wife, she's my grandmother too


Now if my wife is my grandmother, then I'm her grandchild
And every time I think of it, it nearly drives me wild
For now I have become the strangest case I ever saw
As husband of my grandmother, I am my own grandpa


... Just in case you were curious