My family, on my mother's side, were all ADHD so there was no end to the confusion. People at that time just thought we were eccentric (or evil), since ADHD had not been diagnosed yet. I think if any of us had gone to a psychiatrist in those early days, we would have caused him to go crazy.
Our family was like the "blonde jokes" that we enjoy, except we had higher IQ's than those in the jokes. We definitely were what you would call "Looney"- but we had so much fun, and still do, so there is no way I would want to change. I can thoroughly relate to the blonde jokes and find them extremely funny. I suppose some would think that they are an insult to blonde-haired people, but to me, they are the "normal" fare of life. The brunette genes are dominant in our family, but we live in our own little world and the weird, funny, and plain idiotic happenings seem to find us. As children, we would tend to think "I wonder what would happen if..." and then act on it - usually it would end with us getting into some kind of trouble with our parents, but was always great fun.
When our side of the family carries on a conversation, most people cannot keep up. It is not because we are brilliant conversationalists or are more knowledgeable than others; it is because our minds and mouths cannot keep up with each other. We will be talking, and some other subject will fly into our mind, then we will immediately change the subject without warning. If you were born in our family, you would have no problem keeping up, but spouses and friends usually just give up and walk away.
Apparently, this "disease" affects both male and female members of our family, because my youngest son is now doing the same thing. He is quite frustrated over the situation. I am not sure if it is because his friends cannot keep up with the conversation or if he is getting a little too much like his mother - yikes!
We were of Croatian descent and lived in a Croatian community, most did not speak English until the second generation started school and English was a requirement in order to attend. It was a very close-knit community and most were just as strange as our family to an outsider. Now that I think about it, there are very few Croatians who are not ADHD. All the old women (and I mean ALL) wore black. Many of them were widows, but the ones who were not widows were apparently still in mourning over their parents, or their neighbors, or someone. They all wore scarves on their heads - almost always black, and the neighborhood kids (unless it was their particular grandmother) thought all the old women were witches.
My mom was a great one for giving us cod-liver oil (a teaspoon a day) and iodine tablets, which were flat, like the Necco candies (until salt came out with added iodine). I loved both the iodine and the cod-liver oil and would remind mom that it was time lest she should forget. To me, both items were a tasty treat - I was such a weird kid.
My mom loved to draw portraits; she did an exact likeness of Winston Churchill and drew many movie stars. One year my dad bought her a box of art paper. The box cover had a picture of a woman riding a horse and I am not sure, but I think it was suppose to be Joan of Arc. It said Jeanne D'Arc on it and it was from Montag's historic papers, copyright 1930. I have no idea who got mom's artwork - but I have the empty box! I also have my grandmother's net fly swatter - can't buy those anymore either (well, you can, but they are not from the 50's).