Naughty Kids

Innocent moment

So, when I was young I was quite mischievous. My brother and I joined forces and created havoc. Sometimes he was the elder one and sometimes I was. We were good bad but we weren’t evil.

It was early morning, and it had snowed overnight. Everything was layered with clean white snow.  A neighbor drinking his early morning coffee, looked out the window.  He saw the pristine white and then noticed something moving.  He called to his wife and said, “I didn’t know Betty (my Mom) let the kids play in the snow in their pajamas.”  His wife said, “What!!!”  Obviously, Betty didn’t let the kids play in the snow in their pajamas.  We had escaped.

We lived on a side street that had a fair share of traffic.  It was a snowy day and my Grandfather was babysitting us. We were probably around 5 at the time.  There was a car accident just in front of the house.  My Grandfather went outside to see what happened.  He left without a coat thinking he would be out for a few moments. My brother and I had other ideas.  We did something quite special — we locked the front door.  Grandpa came back and was a little startled when we wouldn’t let him in. He banged on the door, “Let me in Annie and Chuckie, let me in.”  We didn’t.  He knocked on the window, we waved to him. “Hi, Grandpa!”

Fortunately for Grandpa, we had a vestibule.  He stayed there for a for while and then a neighbor took him in.  

My brother did something so audacious it shocked and impressed me.  He came home one day with a new toy, a periscope.  He said, Eric, his friend had given it to him.  My Mom called Eric’s Mom to say thank you.  Eric never had a periscope.  After some investigative work, my Mom realized that Chuck had stolen the money from her wallet, crossed the busy street by himself and bought the toy. He had left the packaging on the periscope, which helped her investigation.  I was most impressed that he crossed the street by himself.  I wouldn’t have dared.

When my brother mentions something naughty that my nephew had done, I remind him that it doesn’t come close to our exploits.  Somehow we both survived and became valuable members of our communities.