When I was about 11 years old we lived in a house on Butterfield Rd. in San Anselmo, CA. One Saturday morning I was out in the garage pouring over the latest issue of Mad Magazine with my friend, Dale, from across the street. That issue had the usual "Spy vs Spy" episodes along with Dave Berg's satires on suburban life. It also included my all time favorite, "Horrifying Cliches".
When my mother came out to the garage to check on the laundry she saw us reading Mad Magazine and assumed it was some kind of smut. She came over to us and said, "What are you guys reading? Let me see that!" She grabbed the magazine from us and started looking through it.
As she was reading it, she slowly started to smile. Her smile grew to a grin and then she laughed out loud. She handed the Mad Magazine back to us and said, "That's pretty funny, isn't it?"
