What mischief did YOU get into as a kid?--Al

-- Al Schroeder (al.schroeder@nashville.com), April 20, 2000

Answers

Before I was old enough to talk my parents told me that my recreational pursuits were trying to flush cucumbers down the commode and trying to ride my tricycle down a flight of stairs. I'll take the fifth on that, knowing me I wouldn't doubt a word of it.

I got a little older, physically, and tried to get into anything I thought was a big secret and the grown ups didn't want me into.

A little older I got, and my efforts were expended trying to bug my uncle, who was still a teen ager. Example, he was fixing the cord to Mom's iron, I was sitting on the long kitchen bench with him and watching the action. Suddenly I plugged the cord into the wall, sparks flew - - we tipped the bench over, I can still remember Mom standing between her brother and I screeching, "No, you can't kill him."

A little more along the time line I managed to get into a set of greeting cards he was going to sell door to door, he was doing the Cloveine Salve bit too. I had the cards and envelopes strewn aroung the yard. When he came home and saw it, Mom did another slide into home base in time to keep him from assaulting my battery. About the time I started school he had moved out, I thought it was me, but later in life Dad told me it was because uncle wouldn't abide by the rules of the house. Years after he tells me, why not tell me while I was wallowing in little boy guilt ?

During the school years I learned from the example of others, older kids usually, all the tricks of boydom's nefarious activities plus some I thought up on my own.

Al won't let me write a book here, so will close with, I did get passing grades in school, had no bruises. I guess I wasn't the holy terror I thought I was. And watching my youngest grandson go through the, "terrible twos," "worse threes," "finagling fours," I guess I was a holy terror, and he aptly followed in my path using the modern technology available to him.

-- Denver doug (ionoi@webtv.net), April 21, 2000.