When we were kids and it was Christmas time, David would do everything in his power to find out what we were all getting for Christmas. He saw it as a chance to use his spy skills and he would often ask for me to help him. Whenever mom and dad weren't home, we would search the house high and low for gifts. There are a lot of places there to hide presents.
After we had gone to sleep on Christmas Eve, Santa would get to work putting all the packages under the trees. With six kids, it was a lot of work! Then "Santa" would set up a booby trap at the top of the stairs to prevent curious kiddos from sneaking upstairs too early in the morning. Little did Santa know that we were one step ahead of him. David would wake me up very early on Christmas morning before anyone else was awake and we would work together quietly to get over the booby trap.
You see, one child on their own, could not get past, but two working together could do it! We would quietly tiptoe into the living room. It was always so beautiful. It was still dark and the Christmas tree was so huge, nearly fifteen feet tall it seemed to me. The lights would bounce off all of the gifts. It seemed like the entire room was full of gifts stacked to the ceiling!
I never wanted to peek at my presents, but David always wanted to know what he would be getting. He would get a knife from the kitchen and very carefully slice the tape on the edge of his gifts and peek in to find out what it was. He would then carefully reapply tape so no one could tell.
After a bit, we would sneak back down the stairs without upsetting the booby trap and head back into our beds. This little adventures only happened once a year, but I remember these moments fondly. I felt very special that my big brother needed my help!
Friday, December 21, 2012
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Snake on a fence
When we were kids, and well into his adulthood, David like to play practical jokes on people. I have tons of stories about things he did like putting saran wrap on the toilet or vaseline on the door knobs, but the best prank he ever did on me when we were kids involved a rattlesnake.
We saw a lot of rattlesnakes growing up where we did. I was always afraid of them because I had common sense, but David was never scared of them and would tease them and mess with them. When a snake was found near our house, my dad or David would kill it. We had a snake killing stick which was a long stick with a loop on the end. You would stand away from the snake and use the stick to place the loop over the snake's head and then pull really hard on the wire to trap it. Then they would chop its head off with an axe. (I'm not even joking this stuff totally happened!) Here is a picture similar to what it looked like. I am sure Grandpa still has it somewhere out at their house.
So my brother was always out wandering around and catching snakes when he was your age and a bit older. One day he called me out to the pheasant house (that's a whole other story about how my dad decided to build a building and keep pheasants in it for a few years). Behind the pheasant house was a wooden fence that formed the pen for the cows in the barnyard. I turned the corner and he was nowhere to be found, but then I heard a rattle! And up on the wooden fence was a huge rattlesnake! It was looking right at me and it's mouth was open like it was ready to strike. I screamed and ran away as fast as I could.
David chased after me laughing. Turns out, the snake was dead. He had killed it and then laid it up on the fence as a practical joke. He then hid behind the pheasant house with a rattle and waited for me to come around the corner and scare me. I was so mad, but it was a pretty good practical joke.
We saw a lot of rattlesnakes growing up where we did. I was always afraid of them because I had common sense, but David was never scared of them and would tease them and mess with them. When a snake was found near our house, my dad or David would kill it. We had a snake killing stick which was a long stick with a loop on the end. You would stand away from the snake and use the stick to place the loop over the snake's head and then pull really hard on the wire to trap it. Then they would chop its head off with an axe. (I'm not even joking this stuff totally happened!) Here is a picture similar to what it looked like. I am sure Grandpa still has it somewhere out at their house.
So my brother was always out wandering around and catching snakes when he was your age and a bit older. One day he called me out to the pheasant house (that's a whole other story about how my dad decided to build a building and keep pheasants in it for a few years). Behind the pheasant house was a wooden fence that formed the pen for the cows in the barnyard. I turned the corner and he was nowhere to be found, but then I heard a rattle! And up on the wooden fence was a huge rattlesnake! It was looking right at me and it's mouth was open like it was ready to strike. I screamed and ran away as fast as I could.
David chased after me laughing. Turns out, the snake was dead. He had killed it and then laid it up on the fence as a practical joke. He then hid behind the pheasant house with a rattle and waited for me to come around the corner and scare me. I was so mad, but it was a pretty good practical joke.
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Clubhouse
When David was a kid, he built a really cool fort with his friends Chris and Shawn Rhoton. They were our neighbors on WCR 68. The older kids would walk back and forth between each others' houses and they would have all kinds of adventures together. I was always a bit jealous about this because I always wanted to hang out with David and his friends. As you can imagine, a ten year-old boy does not want his little sister following him and his friends around all the time.
At the end of the driveway in the field, the older kids built a really cool fort. As I remember it, it had log walls and they hammered old pieces of sheet metal on the walls to keep out the wind. I don't remember specifically what they had in there I would try to sneak into the fort all the time, but they would never let me in, of course!
One day I followed David down the driveway hoping to be allowed into the fort. As usual, the older boys didn't want me to go in with them. There was an old pile of wood with lots of rusty nails sticking out of them and I decided to try and balance on them while the boys were doing whatever it was they did in their secret clubhouse.
I was wearing foam flip-flop shoes and I stepped on a rusty nail and it broke through my shoe and went into my skin. It hurt, bad. I screamed really loud and David ran out of the clubhouse. He pulled the nail off my foot and tried to calm me down.
The clubhouse was almost a quarter mile from our house, which was a pretty small trailer at that time because Grandpa was building the house at that time. David picked me up, and even though he was just a kid, he carried me all the way home. I can remember his voice as he tried to calm me down and hurried me home to mom. I don't remember what happened after that, but I was glad to be safe at home.
When you have an older brother, you get left out quite often, but you also have someone that is there to protect you and will make sure that you are safe.
At the end of the driveway in the field, the older kids built a really cool fort. As I remember it, it had log walls and they hammered old pieces of sheet metal on the walls to keep out the wind. I don't remember specifically what they had in there I would try to sneak into the fort all the time, but they would never let me in, of course!
One day I followed David down the driveway hoping to be allowed into the fort. As usual, the older boys didn't want me to go in with them. There was an old pile of wood with lots of rusty nails sticking out of them and I decided to try and balance on them while the boys were doing whatever it was they did in their secret clubhouse.
I was wearing foam flip-flop shoes and I stepped on a rusty nail and it broke through my shoe and went into my skin. It hurt, bad. I screamed really loud and David ran out of the clubhouse. He pulled the nail off my foot and tried to calm me down.
The clubhouse was almost a quarter mile from our house, which was a pretty small trailer at that time because Grandpa was building the house at that time. David picked me up, and even though he was just a kid, he carried me all the way home. I can remember his voice as he tried to calm me down and hurried me home to mom. I don't remember what happened after that, but I was glad to be safe at home.
When you have an older brother, you get left out quite often, but you also have someone that is there to protect you and will make sure that you are safe.
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