Playing Possum
July 6th, 2009
No, I want the opossum to sleep in my bed.
(submitted by Ernie)
Tags: 80's, brothers, cowboy hat, Uncle
Playing Possum
AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com
Spreading the Awkwardness
Love this pic and the story behind it. I’ve recently started feeding possums accidentally and have learned a lot about them. They avoid confrontation at all costs, are not good at defending themselves, won’t bite unless you grab a wild one, are very good for the environment and it is EXTREMELY rare to find a possum with rabbies. They are immune to most diseases…more than our cats and dogs. I actually had a momma with a baby on her back come up to eat last week and it was the cutest thing ever! At first, I ran them off but now that I’ve done my research, I just leave them alone and let them eat and drink. Hey, if they’ll eat the snails, insects, mice and snakes around my place, they can have some of the stray cats’ food and water!
Thanks for the picture!
Looks like they just stopped in to get their photo snapped for the church directory and picked up a little something along the way…
Shouldn’t this be in the Thanksgiving Dinner section?
Being from tennessee this is just priceless! Sorry to hear about your cousin..thank you for sharing this and your story!
What a great family, to be willing to humor their grandmother by going to get a portrait taken on the spur-of-the-moment – and what a cool grandmother to include the ‘possum!
obviously that guy is just messing with yall…
This is freaking awesome. I could not stop laughing my *** off when I saw this photo. I must have scrolled through 40 photos that just looked normal. But when I saw this, WOW.
My first inclination was…Well I won’t say. When I read your response my stereo type thinking was smashed. This is the most oddest and awkward photo I have seen EVER.
Hey! Great photo, Ernie! Mary, I’m so sorry to hear about your son’s death from the accident. It’s great that you’ve shared this hilarious photo with us. I’ve shared it with friends on Facebook.
one of those kids will narrate a story on This American Life if they don’t cancel it in the next 8 years.
Oh man, sleeping with possums is not funny!
A couple weeks ago I was sleeping in my house (I do not live in a rural area) and a possum came in and crawled on me while I was sleeping…and peed in my bed. Sick! Don’t see how anyone could have one as a pet.
They do have quite a musky smell that I was not fond of.
Thanks for all the nice comments. It doesn’t bother me to read all the hilarious comments poking fun at me, my cousin and the photograph.
Michael and I were the only two boys of all the cousins on my mother’s side, so he was really like a brother to me growing up. He died doing what he loved, and we all miss him terribly. Mike was a a tow-truck driver, and at his funeral there were literally hundreds of people, and dozens of wreckers. Mike’s wife got a special permit so that they could transport his casket on the back of his wrecker (and it was bungie corded down!) and at every stoplight on the back roads between Douglasville and Marietta where he is buried, there was a tow-truck with it’s lights on blocking traffic for us.
At one point, a car tried to pass on the right to pass the funeral procession, and some of Mike’s friends headed it off, and almost got into a fistfight with the driver (which was right in front of us). I turned to my wife and said, “that is how Mike would have wanted it: A fight at his funeral!”
In any case, the hat my uncle is wearing is from Southern Tech (Which is Southern Poly now) and my grandfather’s hat was advertising some feed store. My grandfather has a masters degree, and my grandmother (his wife) had a PhD. I just got my MBA, so it just goes to show you that you can’t educate the redneck out of a redneck.
Grandma didn’t have a PhD. She had a Masters in Education with certification in teaching those with learning disabilities. (Just for clarification
) Happy belated B-day cous!
Okay, I just told my mother this story and she remembers Mike. She actually knows some of your family. I knew you and Mike looked familiar, though I’m still not sure how I would know you. Mom knows your family from her old church.
Very cool stories about the photo and the funeral. Hope you’re well.
Fabulous pix. Keep it up!
There’s a man who likes to walk around my neighborhood with a possum slung over his shoulders. And no, it’s not out in the country, we’re in a suburb of Seattle.
I can’t take my eyes of this photo. There’s just something about it…
LOL… haha the kid in the red jacket looks like hes a little freaked by the opossum that is stalking the back of his head
This is what you get when those portrait companies do cold-calls offering a ‘free 8 x 10′
Douglasville?
Here in the Fl. panhandle there is a Possum Festival in Wausau, n. of Panama City. Except they eat them.
…One night I came home after dark with a large bag of cat food. I set it on the porch to bring in later. So ‘later’ (abt 1 hr) I brought it in. It made a noise. I jumped, and so did a miniature possum-out of possum heaven, aka the bag of cat food. In the time it took me to get it, a baby had chewed a hole in the bag and made himself at home.
I love this photo! It’s cute as can be and gave me a good chuckle.
Thanks for sharing. I love the story behind this one… Hope you had a great birthday, Ernie!
This is so funny! I have read the comments and Sorry about your cousin, I know you wouldn’t have posted this picture if you didn’t think it wasn’t funny yourself. That is the beauty of this site, people are willing to poke fun at themselves while entertaining others. The only possum I have seen that are actually living was a mom and her babies at our community college after class. We live in a small town with lots of woods around, so it must have seemed like a great place to have her babies, unfortunatly the local animal catcher was called and probably “re-located”. So thanks for the laugh, I truly enjoyed this pic.
Is the possum wearing some kind of scarf??
This was my family when I was eleven years old. Up front, that’s me with my cousin Greg. Uncle Murray with the hat. And that’s my cousin Jack holding the possum.
A few years back I was out in the backyard at night with my Chihuahua, when I wanted her to come back inside she would not listen, I kept chasing her in the overgrown grass and when I finally had her cornered I realized that it wasn’t by dog, the Chihuahua was happily inside and I had cornered a fast moving (and not to happy) opossum (and boy do they have sharp looking canines)
Lmao you were lucky to get away unscathed
no kidding– Opossums are skittish, but vicious when cornered. Especially mama possums.
fantastic! Americana at it’s best! Thanks for sharing your photo and story.
Hooray for Americana.
Oh. My. Goodness. This might just be a new favorite.
this is a GREAT photo!!! love it.
This is just p’awesome.
And I’m glad to find out the story behind the photo… it looks like someone said “Hey, we should get a photo taken with our possum” and that’s basically what happened!
I am forced to admit that that the photo’s possum looks cute, so I am conflicted — I want to shoot on-sight the possum that has been messing with my flower beds.
I, personally, wish there were MORE opossums around here… the raccoons and armadillos are annoying. Particularly the raccoons.
I like this photo. It would have been better – and perhaps regarded as “historic” instead of “awkward” had it been in black and white or sepia. Also, Buddy the possom should have been a little more forward and not hidden.
That’s a rocking photo. It really is.
sadly, my cat looks just like this possum. he acts like one too: he fights raccoons, probably possums, and neighborhood cats and then comes inside to bite us. if my cat made the look that that possum us making, he’d be about to bite you.
this picture also reminds me of my family in lawrence county, tennessee. it’s amazing, but everyone in that county and the neighboring counties really are related in some way.
courtnie and ernie: a barrel in the backyard?! and he just kept it? males can be pretty menacing. but this one seems pretty cuddly…
They can be mean, but once they get use to you they are not that bad. We played with him like a puppy. Sad but we had more than one as pets. Even raised a mom with babies.
tait, are you sure your cat ISN’T a possum?
Possum! Thats awesome!
Your rhyming comment is awesome. LOL!
That’s a pretty cute possum! I’ve never seen one that wasn’t smushed on the road.
Yeah, but what about the possum? Where did it come from?
We caught the possum in a barrel in the back yard… long story
The kid on the left is me. I have had years of therapy, and have finally recovered from this photo.
The kid on the right was my younger cousin, who was killed a few years back in a motorcycle accident. The two gentlemen were my uncle and grandfather.
Today is my 39th birthday, so this must have been about 30 years ago. I am embarrassed to say that this photo was sort of planned. We were out working in the pasture splitting firewood, and when we came in from lunch, my grandmother apparently thought we looked photogenic, and made us get in the car over to Olan Mills in Douglasville, Georgia.
Glad I could share the joy on this one. Whenever I see it, the Dukes of Hazard theme starts playing in my head…”Just some good ole boys, never meanin’ no harm…”
…and the possum?
The possum was our uncles pet. His name was Buddy.
Happy Birthday Ernie! Mike would be so proud to have this honor.
Aunt Mary
sorry about your cousin
Sorry to hear about your cousin. It must be hard to see all of the comments above poking fun..
This is you for real? I am glad you are still here to tell this story-
Me too! I always appreciate it when those involved step forward to tell the story! So sorry to hear about your cousin.
Actually, my son would rather enjoy it. He is probably laughing about it up in heaven. Just the sort of guy I raised.
Nice! What a great family!
Happy Birthday! I want a pet possum!!!! Sorry to hear about your cousin
Happy Birthday, Ernie! You and Mike were really cute kids.
ALSO… I think we might be related.
Happy Birthday! What a great sport you are to share this. Thanks for sharing this photo and story. You gave us all a good chuckle!
I share the sentiments of the others when I extend my sympathy regarding the loss of your cousin.
The sad thing is……….. I live not far from Douglasville, Ga…….. in Paulding County…. hahahaha
I’m from D’ville… and you and your cousin look familiar. Sorry to learn of your cousin’s death. Happy belated B’day, I hope you’re doing well.
I wonder if we know each other. We lived in D’ville for a long time.
I lived there from birth (1970) until 1991. We lived off Kings Hwy.
My sister, Courtnie, and my brother from the picture all went to Lithia any where from like 91-97
It won’t let me reply to Tiffany, so I’ll post here. I went to Lithia for two years and then graduated from Alexander in 88. So it still doesn’t explain how I would know Mike and/or Ernie. But (as I mentioned in a reply to Ernie) my mom knows some of Mike’s family. (She went to church
with them.)
My best friend Tammy lived in Douglasville and graduated in 1987. She passed away in 1989, and seeing all this Douglasville talk just makes me think of her and her family.
Who is your mother?
Mike’s mom
My mom’s name is Sandra. She used to go to a small Christian
church that no longer exists. She remembers the family and
how close one of the little boys was to Mike (because the
boy’s biological father lived out of state).
We all graduated in the late 90s. Ernie lived in D-ville when he was a kid, but who knows. Back then D-ville was pretty small and everyone seemed to know everyone. If your mom went to church with any one from our family, she went with everyone:) Whats here name, I probably know her too and that might help me figure it out.
Ernie and Mary: so sorry about your tragic loss.
I love the sense of humor you both have. “…years of therapy, and have finally recovered from the photo.” Mary, I don’t know your son, but people who are funny during their time here on Earth like to be honored with funny stories- and pictures- about and of them shared by others. Awesome pic and awesome tribute to your family! This is a hilarious picture! Grandma knew what she was doing when she sent you all to the photographer that day:-)
Hilarious, just hilarious.
Bet they know the difference between a crossbow and a compound bow.
do you make a comment about crossbows on ever picture?
Oh my. I just don’t know what else to say. I do have a few questions though.
1. Was this photo planned – and if so is this what is considered ‘dressing up’?
2. Is that possum (is that really what it is? never met one) coming out of the man’s jacket?
3. Where do I get me a hat like that?
Yes, the photo was planned. For some reason my brother had pet possums and they thought this would be a unique picture. It was taken about 25 years ago.
The guy with the opossum looks like my cousin Troy Wayne. Plus, what Penny said..where do I get me a hat like that?
I think these are my neighbors. No….Seriously.
I think they’re mine too.
Maybe… each of you are the neighbors, that the other one is talking about?
Maybe we were. Did you live in Douglasville,, GA about 20-25 years ago?
Love it!!
That’s one photogenic possom!
…loool. great.
Must be a commerative photo of bring your kids and possum to work day.
I wonder why big brother is giving the photographer the stink-eye?
are they opossum farmers perhaps?
Real possum people don’t need the O
LMAO! True dat!
then i will say opossum every time.
The irish branch of the family is known a s O’Possum.
The Irish O’Possums…that’s HILARIOUS!!!!
Not opossum farmers, opossum ranchers…
Wow….
Why does the kid on the right look so grossed out? You would too if you had to smell possum breath.
LMAO….I can’t think of anything else to say….funny