What is a classic family story in your life?
For instance: Mother had to go out of town which never happened and dad was left to baby sit me and my two siblings (approximately ages 7, 9 and 12). We had not lived in this town long and our dad was the new local Methodist preacher. We played outside and dad assumed all would be easy.
We drug home a giant refrigerator carton from the back of the appliance store in the alley. It would be our adventure spot for the day. We played and played and occasionally our dad would remember to look up from his sermon preparation to see what all the noise was about and tell us to quiet down.
It was not long before my sister decided to dress up as a fortune teller and set up her shop in the box. It was also not long before she was screaming in pain from a rusty nail stuck in her ear. Dad rushed her to the doctor where she was given a tetanus shot and other treatment and sent home to resume playing in the box. This was the same day she coated a towel with ketchup and held a knife against her chest and fell out the back door, scaring the daylights out of all of us.
Dad again told us to quiet down while we continued to rum amok. He didn't have a clue that we had ended up with the neighbor kids joining us to play in the giant box. We decided to play cowboys which included a sheriff (my brother) who used the box for the jail. The youngest neighbor boy was locked up and we sat on the box to prevent his escape. We should have locked up the older brother too because he ran home screaming to mama while we (like idiots) kept sitting on the box.
The boy's mother arrived and Dad came outside.The memory remains of "The face off" of Mrs. Neighbor, hands on hips, telling our mild-mannered father that the town was a lot better place before we moved there!
I don't remember dad every babysitting again:)
YOUR TURN
What little besoms you and your sister were:)
ReplyDeleteI remember as a toddler standing on a chair and locking my mother out. My elder son did exactly the same to me when I was in the loo - 6 months pregnant.
Pat -- And, of course, you only had one bathroom. How did that turn out?
ReplyDeleteI must clear up that I was the youngest so can not be held accountable for our incident. My brother is the oldest so he and my sister were, as always, the trouble makers while I was a totally innocent angel:)
Dear Annie ~~ Great story, but totally innocent angel ??? Well, that's hard to believe. Thank you dear friend for the Birthday wishes - I had a marvelous day and enjoyed every minute with old friends and lots of family. My health has improved so much with the Dr.putting me on 2 cans of Ensure Plus a day.
ReplyDeleteI like Ron's ORIGINAL hatchet, only had to replace handle 3 times and the head twice. Sounds like a fun guy, your husband.
I am so glad you liked the photos of my friends and family. I agree I have a great brother and to be honest I thought I might never see him again as we live 1000 miles apart. But perfect? I wouldn't go that far!!! Glad you enjoyed the jokes my friend.Love, Merle.
One classic family story I remember so well. My Dad worked in the city and Mum had us kids to care for. She would often walk down the road to meet us after school. One such day she saw a snake crawl into a hole in the bank on side of the road.
ReplyDeleteSo what did she do ?? She grabbed the tail of the snake and pulled it out and killed it. But if it had swung around and bitten her, we all would have been in trouble. No car etc.
The only time I ever raised my voice to my mother was to yell, "Mum, don't you ever do that again." So we all survived. Thanks, Annie.
An angel, huh? Dare I believe that one? I think not. It is too early in the day for me to think of a story, but I'll give it a whirl and come back.
ReplyDeleteClassic stories. I have told a number of them, but not so many when I was a little girl. I will have to think on that.
ReplyDeleteHa ha, and you haven't changed much have you! :D
ReplyDeleteI remember sticking a piece of damp black leather over my front teeth so it made them look like they'd been knocked out, when I was at school. I must have been about 8/9 at the time.
Sounds like y'all were waiting for a chance to misbehave! :) That was a fun story.
ReplyDeleteMerle -- Ensure is a good drink to get some extra protein and it tastes pretty good according to Ron. He likes his in a shake with ice cream.
ReplyDeleteHow did you "Mum" kill the snake? Did she have a weapon with her? Did she stomp it to death. If it was crawling into a hole why didn't she just let it go. I believe you needed to raise you voice to her at that time. Yikes!
Judy -- Your classic family story doesn't even have to be about you. Just something that continues to be told over the years. I know you have a gillion.
Tabor -- You are building some pretty classic tales on your blog every day.
LL Cool Joe -- I am looking for some black electrical tape or black leather right now to practice for the next time the grandchildren visit. Can't wait to see what they thing when granny is missing her teeth. Great story. Did it scare you parents to see you in such condition?
Lynn -- Come on, where's your family story? Why am I thinking that you and your sisters got into a lot of stuff as kids?
I enjoyed your story and the other little stories. The only one I can think of that really stands out is when my older brother Kevin and my cousin Yvette and I set out some tin (yes tin) cans in the rain. When it stopped raining and the cans were full, we ran around the yard collecting the cans and throwing the water at each other. When the adults came to check out what was going on, they took over our game. They started scooping water out of our pool and turning on the water hose and one even went up to the 2nd floor apartment and started throwing pans of water out the window. Needless to say, everyone had a soaking good time.
ReplyDeleteAnnie,
ReplyDeleteWhen my four children were young we moved several times because of my husband's work.
Each time we moved to a new house the first thing we did was plan an escape route in case of fire.
Sometimes we lived in a ranch house where it was easy to get out a window and sometimes we lived in a 2 story house where we had to plan a way down the steps and out the door.
When we moved to Pennsylvania we moved into a split level house where the bedrooms are only a half level above the ground. We told the kids that if they ever came out of their bedrooms into the hall and saw flames they were to go back in their room and jump out of the window.
We told them they could maybe
break an ankle or an arm but they wouldn't get killed.
One Sunday a friend gave us two tickets to an Eagles football game and we left 14 year old Chris is charge of the younger kids. When we came home everybody was fine; just here watching TV.
Then a knock came on the door and it was our neighbor from across the street who told us that every kid had jumped out of the bedroom window.
I was shocked and said to Chris,"Is that true? Did everybody jump out that window?" He looked at me and said,"Sure, what else could they do? I was running a fire drill."
In the end we were glad he had done that because now we knew that in case of fire they wouldn't be afraid to jump.
Great story. My stories would scare the pants off you like the time Mom held Dad at gunpoint threatening to kill him. It was a crazy life.
ReplyDeleteNeedless to say, my home is peaceful and sane.
Great Story!
ReplyDeleteOne of my older brothers was babysitting the 3 younger girls, but we locked him out of the house! Then he broke a window trying to get back in, n cut his arms on the broken glass n had to go to the hospital for stitches. He never was asked to babysit again... My older sister was quite the ring-leader!
There's plenty more tales, but yours had me remember that one.
You know how the PK's are, right?
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you were the one who was the angel.
Love it, Annie! My classic story is a little different:
ReplyDeleteMy father accidentally hit a bird while on a Sunday drive once, and it stuck to the front bumper of our car. When we arrived home, our pesky neighbor was mowing his lawn with a regular old fashioned lawn mower. When he headed toward the back of the house my father tossed the dead bird in his trail (just for giggles) and hurried us into the house. We all watched from the living room window as the neighbor stopped the mower and scratched his head in disbelief when he noticed the dead bird. My favorite part was when he looked up at the sky (checking for other falling birds, I imagine).
I still hear this story at group gatherings and it always brings a smile to my face.
Bonnie -- Were the adults sober? Still it sounds like a fun memory. These days it's water balloons.
ReplyDeleteNancy -- That is so funny. A fire drill. Somebody should have seen that coming. I must tell you about your namesake kitten. Nancy Kitten scolds me something awful when I am late with their breakfast now that they are coming to the table.
Marla and Steve -- Oh my that is definitely a classic story but certainly not a pleasant memory. I'm sorry you had to put that in your recollections.
Snaggle Tooth -- Aren't older sisters ALWAYS the ringleaders? LOL
Cliff -- Did I detect sarcasm? Of course my brother was the angel and my sis and I were the black sheep. Oh our poor papa. It wasn't the first time we tarnished his reputation in a town.
Scarlet --That is so clever. How funny it must have been to see the guy looking for falling birds. I would have responded the same way. You guys are the bestest! LOL
lol! I needed the laughs, Annie, and thank you for providing them. Oh my - this brought back so many memories of the mischief I'd get up to with my brothers and sisters. It would always start with laughter, but someone would end up crying - lol!
ReplyDeleteWell I'm just happy that I never had to babysit kids like you three! (Just kidding. Actually I have babysat far worse troublemakers in my time!)
ReplyDeleteA classic family story involves my grandfather's pristine copy of Aviation Weekly magazine. He was a pilot and his magazine was sacred. When my youngest aunt was still in a high chair, he was at the table reading his magazine while my grandmother was serving everyone Jello for dessert. She went to put whipped cream, from a can, onto my aunt's Jello, but my aunt wanted to press the trigger and make the whipped cream come out. She started yelling "Myself myself myself!", grabbed at the can, and shot a laser-like beam of whipped cream all over the cover of Aviation Weekly. My grandfather was most displeased, but it makes a great story.
Talon -- It thrills me to give you moments of laughter.
ReplyDeleteSparkling Red -- Oh how well I understand the terrors of Redi-Whip in a can. We used to fight over who would get to squirt it. Instead of ruining an important magazine, I grabbed the can and squirted some on the Bishop visiting our home:) I hadn't thought of that in a long time.
Your family sounds an awful lot like ours. A large box meant hours of fun and excuses for us kids getting into trouble... and we did :-)
ReplyDeleteBTW as the oldest sister in my family, I can attest that I was the ringleader of all nefarious activity at our house. Oy, I could write a book.
Fortunately it was on the ground floor so I just had to stand on the loo, lurch myself over to the window and climb out and walk round.
ReplyDeleteNo Probs!
awesome story! i can remember my two siblings and i playing with those large boxes too! even as a grownup seeing one still makes me smile wistfully.
ReplyDeleteyour dad sounds like a sweetheart, annie!
ReplyDeletehaha! yeah, you definitely should have locked up the other kid.