What's a mom to do?
It was a quiet night. I'm not sure what time of year it was. I don't think we had to bundle up to be outside.
Sutter must have been at a friend's that night. Carl may have been out sailing on a race or may have tied up at a dock waiting to come back the next day.
Hhmm. Me and Evan. This could have been what they would now call a 'teachable moment.' I did what all good moms would do for a kid. I gathered up some supplies and said said we were going to the car.
About a mile and a half later, we pulled up to Mary's house. It was quiet all around the street..and certainly at her home and yard. We got out of the car. It was time. I was teaching my son how to T.P a house.
I said we needed to be very quiet. He was a bit timid. He took a roll of toilet paper and proceeded to pick off one piece at at time and lay it on the hedges. No! That's now how we do it! This is how...
I took one of the rolls and threw it over the roof, streams of tp running down the sides. Ah ha! I could see his eyes light up. That's the way it's done! Evan got the hang of it, suppressing his laughs, and grabbing another roll. No more Mr. Nice Guy tossing one piece at a time....toss the whole thing! Run it all out in one piece on those hedges. I don't remember if she had a tree in her yard. I don't think so. But if she did, I'm sure we would have decorated it spectacularly.
We were done quickly. Got in the car...and maybe we went for ice cream. If not, I wish we had. That could have been the icing on the cake; the toilet paper off the roll; the whiteness of a line, along the darkness of the hedge.
Mary wasn't very pleased. I think she had already picked it all up shortly after we were gone. I just cracked up.
I don't know if Evan ever used what I taught him that night. But it's one of the highlights of the low-life that made my day. Practical but worthless.
He and Erin are having a son in a couple of months. Maybe he'll remember, one night, when he's alone with Cadel, that teachable moment. A new tradition! Teach the next generation!
Live richly, marilyn
Sutter must have been at a friend's that night. Carl may have been out sailing on a race or may have tied up at a dock waiting to come back the next day.
Hhmm. Me and Evan. This could have been what they would now call a 'teachable moment.' I did what all good moms would do for a kid. I gathered up some supplies and said said we were going to the car.
About a mile and a half later, we pulled up to Mary's house. It was quiet all around the street..and certainly at her home and yard. We got out of the car. It was time. I was teaching my son how to T.P a house.
I said we needed to be very quiet. He was a bit timid. He took a roll of toilet paper and proceeded to pick off one piece at at time and lay it on the hedges. No! That's now how we do it! This is how...
I took one of the rolls and threw it over the roof, streams of tp running down the sides. Ah ha! I could see his eyes light up. That's the way it's done! Evan got the hang of it, suppressing his laughs, and grabbing another roll. No more Mr. Nice Guy tossing one piece at a time....toss the whole thing! Run it all out in one piece on those hedges. I don't remember if she had a tree in her yard. I don't think so. But if she did, I'm sure we would have decorated it spectacularly.
We were done quickly. Got in the car...and maybe we went for ice cream. If not, I wish we had. That could have been the icing on the cake; the toilet paper off the roll; the whiteness of a line, along the darkness of the hedge.
Mary wasn't very pleased. I think she had already picked it all up shortly after we were gone. I just cracked up.
I don't know if Evan ever used what I taught him that night. But it's one of the highlights of the low-life that made my day. Practical but worthless.
He and Erin are having a son in a couple of months. Maybe he'll remember, one night, when he's alone with Cadel, that teachable moment. A new tradition! Teach the next generation!
Live richly, marilyn
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