Chinese Opera at the Dinner Table

Dad's stories at the dinner table usually involved creating sound effects by hitting a wooden spoon against an array of glasses, metal bowls and pots of various sizes. These sounds were meant to imitate the gongs and cymbals used in traditional Chinese theater.

Hence, the stories would go something like this:

"Once upon a time, there was a boy named ______." boing!

"One day, he overslept, and realized he was late for class, so he jumped out of bed and he ran as fast as he could to school." gong-gong-gong-gong-gong (the sound of feet running)

"On his way to school, it began to rain." ping...ping...ping...ping (softly falling rain)

"Then, it began to thunder!" CRASH (thunder)

"...and then the rain began to pour!" ping-ping-ping-ping (more raindrops) CRASH, CRASH (more thunder)

And so on and so forth. We loved it.