Years later, this uncomfortable yet hilarious memory came back to me.

In the spring of my fourth grade year, I had my first introduction to sex ed via St. Catherine’s “Family Life” class. On the way home from school on day, just as we passed the Midlothian Turnpike exit on Chippenham Parkway, I abruptly asked daddy “do you know what erections are?”

I was trying to process all I had learned that day and didn’t yet understand that asking such a question was viewed as taboo. Clearly uncomfortable, he responded with a wary “yes…”

Nothing could have prepared him for the question that was to follow: “So do you get erections when you hug Nama Estelle?”

I still remember how his knuckles turned white as he gripped the steering wheel before he changed the subject!