Tuesday 3 September 2013

A Well Ordered Childhood.

I was just thinking about what a delightful teenager I was (see two posts ago) when I realised something odd. When I was a young child, I got into trouble for all sorts of things, such as:

a) Getting caught stealing the merchandise when I was the primary school biscuit monitor.

b) Getting sent to the headmaster’s office for saying the currants in the pudding looked like rabbit shit.

c) Worrying the school staff silly by taking two hours for my lunch break because I was up the field building a snowman – only it wasn’t a snowman, but a snow-woman (complete with naughty bits.)

d) Taking my dad’s box of matches and setting the whole back fields alight, so all the men had to come running out with blankets muttering ‘If I ever catch the little bugger who did this…’

Isn’t it strange that such an enterprisingly delinquent child should have turned into such a wholesome teenager? I always did get things back to front (except when it mattered.)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, better that way than the other way 'round.
When I was in second grade I hid up in a tree during recess. After all the children had filed back into the school a frantic looking teacher appeared on the playground, and eventually found me up in the tree. He brought me to my astonished teacher "Of all the children in my class, *you??*" Then I was sent to Miss Sparks for punishment.
Maddie, however, was very well behaved at school. Home was another matter :)
n.

JJ said...

Congratulations, Nancy. I always had difficulty climbing trees. I was good at climbing over high fences to get to some place I shouldn't be, but the tree technique remained a mystery.

Are you sure 'Miss Sparks' wasn't a professional name for a lucrative sideline in doling out punishment to refined gentlemen?

You should have spelt Madeline's name with the second 'i,' you know. That way she would have been more attuned to her French ancestry - more inclined to hang around with the local bikers, and less given to sniffing the earth in graveyards.

(Hi, Maddie. Your mother tells me you were troublesome, dear. I think your fingernails need scrubbing.)