“The truth is that parents are not really interested in justice. They just want quiet.”
The morning is lovely. A breeze stirs the wind chimes and blows the oak branches. I sat on the deck with my coffee, my morning ritual, and read two of my Sunday papers. I stopped every now and then, as I always do, to watch the birds. A woodpecker enjoyed the suet I put out on Friday and a raucous blue jay flew from branch to branch. A few nuthatches joined the chickadees at the different feeders and a titmouse was back. The crow hasn’t been by in a couple of days. Tonight is dinner and a movie on the deck.
I grew up with certain truisms. My tongue would turn black when I lied and only mothers could see it. Humiliation would haunt my mother for all the days of her life if I didn’t wear clean underwear and happened to be in an accident. My eyesight, especially in the nighttime, would be greatly improved if I ate my carrots. Santa Claus always knows when I’m bad. My face would be permanently distorted if I made faces. Bubble gum, if swallowed, forms a ball in your stomach that takes years to dissolve. Potatoes grow in dirty ears.
I believed these, and the believing never hurt me, neither did finding out they weren’t true. I remember looking in the mirror to see if my tongue had turned black, not realizing I had given myself away. I envisioned tiny potatoes so I allowed my mother to dig around to clean my ears. I still don’t swallow gum of any sort. Clean underwear is a must, accident or no accident, but that came with growing older. I did wish I hadn’t been forced to eat all those carrots, and I was disappointed Santa wasn’t real, but there were no permanent scars.
When I was older, I never thought of those truisms as lies. I saw them as my mother’s way of getting us to be cleaner, healthier and better behaved. I don’t have kids, but, if I did, I wouldn’t above using a few of those truisms myself. Why mess with success?
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
August 8, 2010 at 11:10 am
and you could not swim for an hour after eating.
I lament their passing but today celebrate my first trip to the ball park with the Prince – the men-folk are assembling for a trip to Comerica to see our Bengals take on LAAngels (I thought they were still the California Angels of Anaheim but what do I know)
So what does he “need” ? A gigantic foam tiger claw ? an inflatable bat ? hot dogs ice cream and pizza. Will he still be awake at the end of the game and want to run the bases ?
A four year old, his Pumpa and two sons – life is wonderful
August 8, 2010 at 11:00 pm
My Dear Hedley,
My mother firmly believed the no swimming rule and she kept her eyes on us. We always hated the wait.
Life is indeed wonderful! It sounds like the perfect afternoon. All the menfolk enjoying the game together, especially the Prince!
August 8, 2010 at 11:25 am
It has been cold, damp and drizzly here most of the day. I thought I saw a raccoon in the forest today, but I`m pretty sure it wasn´t. I saw something brownish/grey, big as a dog and it made a sound that I´ve only heard on TV. I had to check it on the internet (what can´t one find there 🙂 ) and it sounded just like a raccoon in distress!
But I´m pretty sure it was a fox and that it was a bird making that strange sound. I do like raccoons but they really don´t belong here. But since there are raccoons living in the wild down in Europe it wouldn´t surprise me if someone had smuggled a cub here to have as a pet. People do the most stupidest things.
I was relieved when I understood that Santa wasn´t real. I was scared to death every time I had to meet him (Swedish children meet him every Christmas eve) and my sister had convinsed me that gum would get stuck on the ribs causing a blockage so that I never would be able to eat any more 🙂 🙂 🙂 I still don´t swallow gum 🙂
Have a great movie night!
Christer.
August 8, 2010 at 11:03 pm
Christer,
It is late, and our perfect day is now humid and ugly. I went up to turn on the air conditioning so I’ll have to wait a bit before bed so the room can have time to cool.
Raccoons are smaller than dogs, even the biggest ones. They are common here and Gracie had one cornered on the deck one summer. I grabbed her quickly as raccoons can get ugly and vicious.
The movie night was great fun!
August 8, 2010 at 11:36 am
these are some great tunes today
August 8, 2010 at 11:03 pm
Thanks Morpfy!! I do spend time listening every weekend until I find just the right songs for the day.
August 8, 2010 at 11:52 am
Some of my favorite ones were ‘don’t whistle in the house it’s bad luck’ or ‘don’t open an umbrella in the house it will bring bad luck’. The best one of all was, ‘don’t play with yourself or you will go blind’. The last one really worried me until I became a teenager because I I wore glasses. When I turned about 14 I didn’t care if my eyesight failed or if anything else failed I just didn’t care.
August 8, 2010 at 11:05 pm
Bob,
I never heard the whistle one until I read To Kill a Mockingbird where whistling was bad luck and had something to do with ghosts. I remember the umbrella one.
I’m laughing at your last sentence-a classic!
August 8, 2010 at 3:50 pm
We all went through the same cliches and learning Santa wasn’t real was a let down. I kinda thought it was my parents and a friend had found a key to the storage room at his house and couldn’t believe the toys stored there. They ended up under the tree. So we knew something was going on. But my parents kept it going for as long as they enjoyed it telling me if you don’t believe in Santa then see nothing under the tree this year. I think I was 17 when she said that.
August 8, 2010 at 11:06 pm
Z&Me,
Ha, love the 17 comment!
My nephew was around 8 when he asked my sister, his mother, about Santa Claus. He had his suspicions and told her to make sure he knew the whole story before he had kids of his own.