Top 5 Laughs and Childhood Memories

By Mary Hill

Day 18, Saturday: Tell a story from your childhood. Dig deep and try to be descriptive about what you remember and how you felt.
 Memories of childhood can bring a lot of laughter.  The Blog Everyday in May challenge deals with childhood memories.  These topics make a great combo!

1.  The day my little brother ran away. (He will probably not like me sharing this. He doesn’t read my blog so…)  My brother was four or five, and my mom had corrected him for something. I really can’t remember what.  After the correction and time out, he was really upset with her. I remember him telling her, “I am going to run away.”  

My mom answered nonchalantly,  “Okay, remember you will need your clothes, and you can make yourself something to eat for the trip.”  My brother looked sad for a minute. “Okay, but don’t follow me.”  “All right,” my mom replied.

He grabbed most of his clothes from his drawers and then made a peanut butter sandwhich.  He took a bite. “I am going now.” he told my mom.

“Okay, love you. Hope you find somewhere nice to stay and it does not rain.”  

I think he was hurt because he headed out the front door.  “Should I follow him,” I asked my mom. 

“He’ll be back in five minutes.” Mom said.

Five minutes later and no sign of my little brother.  “Should I try to find him now?”

“I guess so. I didn’t think he would stay gone this long. I thought he would come right back scared and lonely,” mom said as we headed out the door.

He took mom seriously. I started down the sidewalk to look for him.
I had to laugh. He had left behind a trail of underwear that travelled down the street. We followed them until we found him sitting by his school crying.

“Steve, where have you been,” I said as soon as I saw him.

“No… .where.  Just here.” he said. “Mommy doesn’t want me anymore.”

“Mommy is here,” my mom said as she ran up to him. “I love you, darling.”

“Why did you let me run away?”  he asked. 

“I thought you would come right back. I was trying to teach you that it is better at home,” she said.

“I want to go home now, mommy.”  he said.

We walked back toward the house. I was still holding his bundle of “bread crumb” underwear.

2.  Making Mud Pies My younger sister decided to go out to the end of our driveway as a toddler to play in the “mud.”  The only problem a horse had been there and the mud was, well you can imagine.  We had a babysitter who saw her from the porch and went running out screaming. “Oh, gross, Fuzzy.” (We called her Fuzzy until she was about four or five. Now she is Ruth.)  The babysitter fussed  all the way to the bathroom to give her a bath. “You stink. What made you do this?”  At two, she couldn’t answer back clearly.   Needless to say the bath took an extra long time. 😉

3.  Stupid, horrible prank. I have been picking on my siblings. I have done some stupid things too. Like the time, I dared my brother to let the air of our neighbor’s cab.  I even showed him how.  Then, I promptly ran and tattled to my mom.  Why I did such a stupid, mean thing I will never know?  My mom got Steven and said he was in a lot of trouble and had to go immediately and apologize. Steven pointed out that it was my idea and why wasn’t I being punished?  My mom gave me two weeks restriction and I also had to go apologize and offer to make amends.  The cab driver was blowing up his tires when we came out. (At least, I had the sense not to flatten them by poking holes in the tires.)  I apologized and so did Steven. He pointed out he missed about an hours work.  I agreed to wash his cab for a month to make up for my bad deed. Steven agreed to help me.

4.  My Last Whipping  I know, a lot of folks consider whipping child abuse, but my parents used whipping from time to time to correct us. I got my last whipping at 16.  My sister had taken my brush or I wanted to borrow hers and she said no. I can’t remember why, but we ended up rolling on the floor screaming at each other trying to get possession of the brush. My father was home after working third shift. He ran down the stairs upset and had his belt. He popped me once and then popped my sister.  I was humiliated to be getting a whipping at 16.  I should have been more considerate.

5.  Roofing memories My dad never took us girls with him when he roofed so this is second hand from my little brother.  He described the day he got mad at my dad and told him he was on strike and would not help anymore.  My dad said okay. Later that day, he went to McDonalds for lunch with my brothers. He got David and himself something but not my brother. “Where’s mine?” My brother asked.  “You’re on strike.  You have to pay for your own.” My dad told him.  “But I don’t have any money.”  Anyway, my brother said he got the point and immediately called an end to the strike so he could get lunch.  Another time, my dad got irate with my brothers when he took them to work.  We lived in Margate, Fla at the time. Broward County has a big complex of canals.  Well, my brothers decided to have some fun. They had noticed some aligators sunning across the canal. They started throwing shingles into the water to attract them.  The gators, thinking the shingles were food, would grab hold and then start rolling.  They let go immediately when they figured out the shingles were not food.  My dad had come around the corner and saw what they were doing. Well, they got whipped good that day.