These are just a few anecdotes that came to mind.
Julie had just started kindergarten where she was learning to write with block letters. She already had a working knowledge of the alphabet, so things were going well. One day, Joyce was putting some clothes into a closet when she noticed a bold “JULIE” written on the closet wall in crayon. She called Julie and asked, as mothers usually do, “Who wrote this on the wall?”
Julie, without missing a beat, answered “Cathy did.”
Joyce broke up laughing because Cathy, being the youngest, hadn’t yet learned to write her name, let alone her sister’s.
Some time later, I don’t recall just how long, Julie became dissatisfied with something or other, and decided that if she couldn’t get her way with whatever it was, she’d have to run away from home. She couldn’t have been any older than seven.
Her mother and I exchanged one of those “just go with it” looks, and we told Julie that we’d be sorry if she left, but if that was what she wanted to do, it would be alright with us.
Julie must have been a bit taken aback, but to her credit she masked any surprise as she went to get her jacket. I seem to recall her packing something into a schoolbag, and I believe that Joyce made her a sandwich so that she’d have something to eat on her “journey”. She was ready to go, donned her jacket (in a huff), took her bag, and went out the back door into a light summer drizzling of rain. We were watching to see what she’d do.
The runaway child headed down the driveway and turned toward her friend’s house which was two doors down the street. We phoned the family to tell them what was up, and asked them to make up an excuse to not let Julie in; they agreed. We waited for her next decision as the rain began to fall a little harder.
We were watching the front and back yards and were quick to see Julie heading our way across the back yard. We waited for just a moment or two, after we heard a knock, before Joyce opened the door to exclaim “It’s Julie, she’s back… she’s come home.” Julie was welcomed back with open arms, and no further mention of the incident was ever made, it wasn’t necessary because Julie never ran away again, though I’m betting that she wanted to.
Cathy, as a child, was a bit different from her older sister; she had a built-in trouble magnet. I remember when she was probably 5 or 6 years old, her coming in the back door to give her mother a little bouquet of daffodils. Joyce asked her where she had gotten them, and Cathy said “next door”. Our neighbor had a flowerbed along side the house, and Cathy had taken a liking to the daffodils; she took more than a liking to them, she took the daffodils.
Joyce explained it was the wrong thing to do, and that the flowers would have to be taken back. Cathy was told not to do it again or a spanking would be in order, so she reluctantly returned the flowers and told the neighbor that she was sorry for picking them. The neighbor lady graciously forgave her, but told her not to do it again.
I figured that the lesson was learned when, sometime later, Cathy walked up to my dad who was weeding a row of peonies in our back yard. Dad liked to putter around whenever he and mom visited us. Cathy said “You better not pick those flowers, Grandpa, or mommy will give you a big red ass!” Grandpa had a good laugh over that remark, and the laughter was repeated several more times during the visit.
Then there was the time that Cathy was swearing at the dinner table, and was told to stop it or she’d get her mouth washed out with soap. She didn’t seem to be bothered by threats, or maybe she thought that I wouldn’t follow through because she swore once again.
I got up, took her by the hand, and marched her into the bathroom where I picked up a bar of hand soap and told her to stick her tongue out. As she did, I swiped her tongue with the soap and said something like “There, how do you like that?” I know that I asked some question because she calmly replied “I prefer Ivory.” It’s really impossible to keep a straight face at a time like that. Kids, you’ve gotta love ‘em.
F. A. Zedik
June 08, 2005