Keith and I have been having a lot of fun with the posts about the tar truck rolling over and splattering the tar all over our house. Well if truth be told, if Keith and I would have had our way, we would have stayed in the little house on Maple Street. We had both fallen in love with that little house. It was our first taste of living “in town” and making friends that could actually come over to play without having to make plans with parents and times and arrangements to get the kids home, drivers, etc.
Mom and dad told us one day that we were going to be moving to the house on second street. I think that Keith and I were in shock at first and second of all we were mad! The new house was all the way across town. Mom told me that the house always had to be in the “show mode” so that the real estate people could show it. That really made me mad because I was in charge of a clean house. I was the oldest. Not fair!
Our little house had a second floor that essentially was a loft where Keith and I slept. I tried to get him to help me clean and he wouldn’t. I mean he wouldn’t help at all. I tried to physically drag him out of bed one day and couldn’t get the job done. He finally got out of bed and went outside to play. He yelled and I yelled; nothing like a thirteen year old and a nine year old. Oh I was so mad at him, so I locked the doors. Oh my goodness, he was so angry at me he scared me so I really wasn’t going to unlock the doors then. Well he put his fist right through the glass window in the door. Of course, he bled all over the place. Then I was really scared. Oh when mom got home, she was mad. It was just a bad day all the way around. She gave us all the guilt trip. It went something like this. “If I didn’t have to work, things like this wouldn’t happen, I would be home to supervise these children. They shouldn’t be left alone to fend for themselves, I can certainly see that.”
Well that was not the last of the “accidents that happened to Keith in that little house.” I am sure he will tell you that it was all my fault, but I don’t remember that it was. (The really cool part of being my age is that you can blame poor memory on your age and no one can say a word.)
One day Keith came in and went to the bathroom and got in the medicine cabinet. I asked him what he was looking for about the same time as I saw him take a double sided razor blade out and put it in his hand. I yelled at him and told him he couldn’t have those and that they were dangerous and jerked it out of his hand. Whoops! Blood all over the place. One thing Keith does not like is blood; especially his. Oh, that blood was not just dripping or oozing, it was running. Thank goodness it wasn’t spurting or I wouldn’t have a brother. What is the phrase? God protects children and angels. Well we certainly were not angels. We were children and fools. Anyway once again I was scared, this time I thought I had killed him. He didn’t faint, but he bled like a stuck hog. He probably still has a scar, if he does I’m sure he would gladly show you what a terrible sister I was. I on the other hand would gladly show you the scar and the point of a number 2 pencil that he jabbed me with so many long years ago. I am sure I am innocent of all wrong doing.
See…
ReplyDeleteThe Maple Street house was a house of character. Oh, it was a little house I suppose, but it was right next to a creek. And behind the back yard were the woods. And to the opposite side of the house from the creek was a vacant lot. Just imagine the possibilities!!
As an 8 year old moving to town from the country, it was like I really didn’t have to leave the farm at all. I had all the exploring possibilities of the country, but I also had inside toilets and there were two of them and they didn’t have wasps!!
On Maple Street there were neighborhood kids to play ball with. Tomorrow we might be Lewis and Clark exploring the great Northwest, and the next day we might be pirates on the high sees!! Shoot, it was a great neighborhood. In fact, Mr. Perry (Mark and Mike’s dad) they lived sort of catty cornered across the street, worked at the local Coca Cola bottling plant right there in Cherokee. Guess what he brought home FREE all the time. I may have gotten a Coke every once and a while with my dad when he took me along to the grocery store, but that was an exceptional treat when we lived in the country. Not on Maple street!!
I think we lived on Maple Street until I was 10. It was a great time, but just how many lives are little brothers given when they have big sisters? Hmm… I may have to tell the rest of the story!
Keith, I think it is very interesting that on your blog you are this sophisticated father and grandfather, if only your children would read my posts they would find out the "rest of the story" and hopefully your grandchildren and greatgrandchildren will find the archives of these posts and be enlightened. lol
ReplyDeleteI loved having a big sister when I was a kid, but I’m glad I lived through it! What would I have done without a big sister to tease? Life would have been so boring – although for sure it would have been less painful!
ReplyDeleteThese are my memories from 50 years ago, and I’m absolutely certain they are completely accurate.
So I’m standing at the back door to our little Maple Street house with my left arm half inside and half outside the house. A broken glass window surrounds it, and a shard of glass is sticking out angrily from the heal of my hand. I know what is going to come next. I’ve been cut before. I didn’t like it then, and I’m convinced I’m not going to like it this time!
See… This whole problem started when my loving sister decided that I should help clean the house – in the morning – after a hard day of playing ball, exploring the great northwest, and attacking Spanish galleons on the high seas. What was she thinking?
She woke me from a sound sleep, but I was going to have none of it. There was never anything more fun than teasing Lu Anne. She always provided a lot of pleading, and then there was the screaming, and finally she would resort to a physical attack.
Well that’s exactly what happened this day. After screaming at me and vainly trying to pull me out of bed, I escaped from the upstairs loft through a side door at the bottom of the steps. It opened to the vacant lot beside our house and I was free!!
Well that completely freaked out Lu Anne. If she had to clean the house, and I wasn’t going to help, then she was just going to lock me outside and not let me back in.
You know if she hadn’t done that, we might have been able to come to some sort of reasonable understanding after a necessary period of screaming and yelling. But she locked me out of the house!! What was a guy to do? I ran around the house checking all the doors, but Lu always seemed to beat me to the door and turned the lock just as I got there.
Well… My understanding is that one of the seven deadly sins is “ire”. And at that moment standing at the back door, and with all the doors to our little Maple Street house locked, I became extremely “ireful”. There was only one thing to do. But no one had ever bled to death punching out a window in the movies – hmmm.
I think it is interesting when you and I went to visit Mom when we were adults a long time ago we were playing the game Agravation all by ourselves in the living room. Mom loved our screaming and yelling at each other. What a difference a few years makes, or perhaps it brought back fond memories to her of her little kids that she loved so dearly.
ReplyDeleteI am sitting here feeling so vindicated! I wasn't responsible for the knock down, drag out fights Joey and I had. You were, Mom! You were getting your just desserts. LOL
ReplyDeleteMelanie, you notice nothing was mentioned about the piece of lead I still carry in my body that was broken off into my thumb by your sweet Uncle Keith you love so much. I think he purposely decided not to mention that.
ReplyDeleteI’ve heard about this “lead” you carry around, Sis, but honestly I just can’t remember ever stabbing you with a pencil. Maybe that might be a good story for your blog. It could clear the air, and it might even refresh my memory a bit. ‘Cause I just can’t ever recall going to pencil war. :)
ReplyDeleteI can't legally and morally post a blog on the "lead" because I can't remember. It has something to do with attempting to grab a pencil away from you and you stabbed me with it. The tip never came out. See you would never easily give me things without me grabbing them out of your hand. Don't forget the razor blade. I am absolutely sure I said "please" When I have all the MRI's I always have to declare the lead in my thumb!!! (I think I might have just made that up)
ReplyDeleteOk, so this is the real story.
ReplyDeleteI was little, didn’t shave, and had absolutely no business playing with knives let alone razor blades. But I was always a quick study. Show me how to do a thing, and I could get the handle on it fairly quickly. And you didn’t have to make a point of showing me more than once. I could just pick up stuff watching. Probably most kids are like that. So with my own children, I tried to be extra sneaky so as to prevent as much on-the-job training as possible.
Anyway… Showing off to my big sister was a big deal to me. That’s how she and Jo got a 5 year old to drive a car down a hill into a ditch. A conversation something like,
“I bet you can’t”
“I bet I can”
“I bet you can’t”…
And you can see where this was going to go - A five year old started the car and drove it down a hill into a ditch. Followed by…
“See… I can to!”
Well the same sort of thing was going on with the double edge razor blades. To be fair to Lu Anne, there weren’t any “I bet you can’t” conversations. I just wanted to show off to my big sister that I knew how the razor blades came out of the package and how to reload a razor if the old one was dull. So I say something like, “Hey Lu. Watch this.”
Well, I was able to get the package of razor blades out of the medicine cabinet, and had pushed a blade out of its holder, when my ever vigilant protector realized what I was doing and leaped to my safety. She grabbed the blade from my hand saying something like, “You’re not allowed to play with these!”, and proceeded to end my show and tell training session with a wound to my finger I’ve used successfully at any number of family gatherings in order to gain sympathy. That’s generally when the family once again hears about “the lead” Lu must carry forever in her body as a result of the “pencil war”.
Without ever having been to one I believe in hypnosis. When one is available and not too expensive I am going to go and find out for sure exactly what happened. IF it goes my way I will be sure to tell you and everyone that attends the family gatherings you refer to, the absolute truth.
ReplyDeleteBut I see that the telling part happens only IF things go your way... hmm
ReplyDelete