I think you need to know the real story of our family. Its easy to sugarcoat things to make them sound funnier or less cruel...but the truth was, with seven kids living in a 1,700 sq. ft house, things got pretty messy.
"Messy" as in Many Hands Make Many Messes, and "Messy" as in knock down, drag out fights and cruel tricks played on unsuspecting victims, such as when we told my oldest sister she was adopted and she fell for it.
We had a large acreage to wreak havoc on, although some days eight acres just wasn't enough. We had a grove of trees that one could (and almost always did) get lost in. We lived in the country a half mile from neighbors so our parents were spared angry phone calls about little kids streaking through their yards.
Looking back (all of my 17 years later) its easy to remember my childhood as ideal: lazy summer days at the pool, sleeping in, playing every sport imaginable (and quite a few made up ones) on our huge front lawn. Sadly we were not perfect little angels as shown in this classic example from Vik history.
My older brother and sister built a tree fort, something I recommend kids do at LEAST once in their lifetime, just not how my siblings did. My brother Andrew did all of the manly work, you know, hammering nails, hauling boards, throwing a fit and kicking the tree when it just wouldn't grow the way he wanted it to, and my sister Kiah ran back and forth getting nails and giving moral support, like any sister would.
But then Andrew made a disastrous mistake, he decided Kiah wasn't necessary and declared the fort to be A BOYS ONLY fort. What does a poor little eight-year-old girl do when she's kicked out of the tree fort she helped build? Grab a hatchet and throw it as hard as she can at her brother, of course!
Kiah has always been our little hothead but she pushed the envelope here. Its OK to throw large sticks and nails, but we draw the line at hatchets. Andrew climbed down to teach her a lesson but she was still chucking the hatchet around. Generally he won his confrontations with Kiah but this story ended with Andrew running to Mom as fast as he could, all the while dodging the hatchet.
Moral of the story...never declare a fort Boys Only with Kiah around. I'll return with more hard hitting reports next week. Until then, go build a fort!
"Messy" as in Many Hands Make Many Messes, and "Messy" as in knock down, drag out fights and cruel tricks played on unsuspecting victims, such as when we told my oldest sister she was adopted and she fell for it.
We had a large acreage to wreak havoc on, although some days eight acres just wasn't enough. We had a grove of trees that one could (and almost always did) get lost in. We lived in the country a half mile from neighbors so our parents were spared angry phone calls about little kids streaking through their yards.
Looking back (all of my 17 years later) its easy to remember my childhood as ideal: lazy summer days at the pool, sleeping in, playing every sport imaginable (and quite a few made up ones) on our huge front lawn. Sadly we were not perfect little angels as shown in this classic example from Vik history.
My older brother and sister built a tree fort, something I recommend kids do at LEAST once in their lifetime, just not how my siblings did. My brother Andrew did all of the manly work, you know, hammering nails, hauling boards, throwing a fit and kicking the tree when it just wouldn't grow the way he wanted it to, and my sister Kiah ran back and forth getting nails and giving moral support, like any sister would.
But then Andrew made a disastrous mistake, he decided Kiah wasn't necessary and declared the fort to be A BOYS ONLY fort. What does a poor little eight-year-old girl do when she's kicked out of the tree fort she helped build? Grab a hatchet and throw it as hard as she can at her brother, of course!
Kiah has always been our little hothead but she pushed the envelope here. Its OK to throw large sticks and nails, but we draw the line at hatchets. Andrew climbed down to teach her a lesson but she was still chucking the hatchet around. Generally he won his confrontations with Kiah but this story ended with Andrew running to Mom as fast as he could, all the while dodging the hatchet.
Moral of the story...never declare a fort Boys Only with Kiah around. I'll return with more hard hitting reports next week. Until then, go build a fort!
Cute Tale, but you might want to use your own truant acts as examples:) Even the middle chidren have them!
ReplyDeleteLori