Didn't Know How to Hug?

Once upon a time there were two sisters. The Oldest one wanted to travel and have lots of children. The Younger one wanted to live on a farm, and have no children.

Well, it so happened that the Oldest married a farmer, and the Younger married a military officer, so each got what the other wanted but discovered it suited them quite well that way.

But of course they both had lots of kids. While, admittedly, the Younger had nine children and the Older had five, we must confess that even five is a good amount of kids compared to two or three. I myself am the eldest of the nine, and the Younger Sister is my Mum.

So it came to pass that Mum and Dad and all us kids travelled quite a bit, and my Aunt, now Ma Orchard, stayed with her family on the steadily growing family farm. And thus we did not get a chance to see much of each other except around some Thanksgivings or Christmases when we happened to live near enough to visit.

And that's how, when Dad finally retired and we moved to the small town not far from the Orchard Family Farm, we discovered that in our absence, the Orchard Family had forgotten how to hug. See, there isn't much time for hugging when you're working on a farm, and since they didn't know it is important to stay in practice, they simply forgot.

This was, of course, a terrible tragedy, and the moment we arrived, we set about exchanging knowledge. They taught us all about their wonderful farm, and the things that grow there, and we, in turn, taught them how to hug.