Occasionally my grown children will own up to things they did as children that they'd gotten away with. Or they'll confess to moments of silliness or fearful situations that they felt too insecure to tell you about back when the events occurred.
My girls were always the most secretive about things that were going on in their lives when they were still living at home. My son, not so much. There were times that I'd stop him in the middle of the tale he was about to tell because there are just some things a mother does not want or need to know if she is to stay out of a rubber room. This past week Jami and James (Bubbie) have had me in stitches will tales of things they'd done in the past.
Jami's confession was about a time when she and her brother had gone out with friends and were supposed to be home at mid-night. She claims they knew they'd be in some "deep shit" if they were late but they let time get away from them and were in a place 30 miles away at exactly 11:30. They were driving my mercury Marq, the one they called the "airplane" because of it's size, and knowing they had to have the most skilled driver of the group to get them home in time, they let their friend, Angie, do the driving.
Angie had great skill in getting to where she needed to be on time because she always waited until past the last minute to leave for school every day and still managed to be there before the last bell rang. Her little brother once said that they'd buckle up and hang on for the trip because the ride was more fun than a roller coaster.
Jami said they took all the back roads to avoid any police that might be out and about but had to be on one of the state highways for a few miles at one point. That was where the state trooper noticed the airplane full of kids zooming along and got after them. She said they turned back onto one of the back roads and lost the trooper,but being kids, didn't realize that they'd been caught anyway cause he'd called in their tags and knew where they were headed. He was waiting for them when the jumped the highway and started down the gravel road leading to our house. Jami swears it wasn't their fault that he was following them too close on the gravel road and that rock hit his windshield. She said they finally decided to stop before they got home because they figured they'd be in LOTS deeper shit if the police car, with blue lights flashing, pulled into our driveway.
She still doesn't know how they avoided going to jail or how they avoided a ticket even, but she said they were at that time of their life when they were much more afraid of the wrath of Momma than they were of an officer of the law.
They made it home only 20 minutes late for which they were grounded for a week. I told her I should ground her now for another week for the close encounter with the law that I never knew about until last week.
Then, yesterday as we were sitting in the yard under a tree talking about things the kids had done when they were small, Bubbie came forth with a confession.
They'd cleared the ditch behind our house where we used to live and the kids would go out back to play in the dirt they'd piled up beside the ditch. Bubbie said he was playing out there one day and found this green snake coming out of the ground and was poking at it with a stick. He said, "I don't know if I was imagining this or exactly what it was, but the snake rolled over on it's back and then raised his head up and looked at me. It wasn't like any snake I'd ever seen! It's eyes weren't on the sides of it's head, but in the front. And it had teeth that stuck out to the front and it looked right AT me, it was so weird!"
The rest of yesterday afternoon, Jerri and I took every opportunity we could to bring the "buck-toothed" snake incident into our conversations. I guess I understand why my son didn't tell us about it way back when.
Did you ever do anything as a child that your parents didn't know about until you were grown?
1 comment:
Enjoyed a lot!
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