Sitemap
Doctor Funny

Make laughs, not war

Member-only story

Featured

IT WAS A FAMILY-FRIENDLY FACEBOOK GROUP

My Mother Made One Dirty Fish Taco Joke and Got Us Both Banned

Years later, the woman who kicked us out came back for my children

3 min readSep 14, 2026

--

Press enter or click to view image in full size
Three fish tacos topped with cilantro, sliced radishes, cabbage, and creamy sauce on a wooden cutting board, with lime wedges beside them.
The tacos declined to comment. Photo by Kyle Brinker on Unsplash

I was standing near the snack table at a six-year-old’s birthday party, holding a paper plate with one deviled egg on it, when I mentioned that my mother and I had both been banned from the neighborhood Facebook group.

That part landed fine. Someone laughed. Someone said something about how those groups love any excuse to lose their minds. It was going fine right up until I explained whose fault it was.

“It started because of Dana Wells,” I told them.

Three women took a step back, and oddly, it wasn’t at the word banned or Facebook group. It was at her name. One of them still had a juice box in her hand, held slightly in front of her like a small orange shield. Weird.

Nobody asked a follow-up question. Normally, if you say something strange at a party, someone asks what you mean, if only to be polite. Nobody asked. They just closed ranks a few inches farther away and the conversation moved on to preschool waitlists like nothing had happened. I stood there, not really sure about what had just happened.

--

--

Anna Shadley
Anna Shadley

Written by Anna Shadley

I live in Ohio with my family and a dog who pees on everything I love. Weird history stories live here: https://medium.com/ohio-is-weird.