Memories (mischief with my brother)

 I didn't get in trouble very often when I was a child.  Mostly I was pretty well-behaved, but there were a few times when I lost my good judgement and got into mischief.  I am going to blame that on my little brother Mike.

I had four brothers, one older than me, and three younger brothers.  My brother Mike was two years younger than me, so we were pretty close almost from the time he was born.  I didn't like him at first because the minute he came home from the hospital, they put him in the crib I had been sleeping in, and I had to sleep in the bed with my older sister.  I can still remember, at two years old, being mad about that.  But I must have gotten over it quickly because he and I became as close as two peas in a pod, and that continues to this very day.

Now before I talk about the mischief he and I would get up to, I will tell you how I got him into some trouble and to this day he has not let me forget it.   I was in the first grade at the time and he was only four years old.  I of course had learned to spell and write and he had no clue.  I don't know what possessed me to do this, but one day I took a pen and I wrote on the dresser in the boys' room "Michael did this".  

Some time later my mom discovered what had been done and she immediately lit into my little brother. He got in so much trouble by her and then when dad got home, he got in trouble again.  And the whole time I just sat there and didn't say a word. I am surprised he never got me back for that one, but as I said,  he never fails to remind me every chance he gets, so I guess that is his way of retaliating !  We still laugh about it though, because both of wonder why it is that my parents did not  figure out that there was no way "Michael did this" when he still had not learned to write or spell.   Maybe they were thinking the guilty party would step up and say something??   Nope lol !!

When we were a little older, maybe 11 and 9, we decided we wanted to try smoking my dad's cigarettes. 

We snuck a pack and went out to the far corner of the field, right at the edge of the woods.  It seemed far enough away that he would not see us.  We lit the first cigarette and took a puff. Then a few more puffs and then another cigarette and then another, till we figured out how to inhale.  I don't know how many of those things we smoked, but I rememeber feeling sick as a dog.  But that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was my older brother catching us out there.  He went right in and told my dad, and we both got a pretty good whipping over that one.  I still wonder why he told on us as he was always up to his own mischief.  Maybe dad accused him of stealing that package of cigarettes, and he wasn't about to take the blame.  Or maybe he remembered the "Michael did this" incident and figured I needed to get some punishment for my crimes 😗.  We never stole dad's cigarettes again and I never smoke again except for once in the 10th grade I shared a pack with a friend of mine over a two week period, and when that was gone, that was it.  I am glad I didn't take up that habit because I know it is a hard one to kick.

Mike and I liked to play with matches too.  Now don't get me wrong, we never tried to set anything important  on fire, or burn down the neighborhood or anything like that.  We just liked to build fires in my dad's fire pit. But one time, we decided to dig a hole in the side of the hill on the side of the road on our neighbor's property.  He lived across from us and had 40 acres, mostly wooded. So anyway, my brother and I and our neighbor Bruce who was Mike's age, decided to dig a hole into the side of the hill and make "cave".   We were young then, but I don't remember exactly how young. We were also old enough to know better, but as I said, we were always up to some mischief. 

 Anyhow, we dug the "cave" out and then decided we needed to build a fire so we could see inside the cave.  We gathered up sticks and leaves and put them in there and built the fire.  We weren't afraid of it catching anything like the neighbor's 40 acres of woods because it was in the cave.  The only thing we worried about was someone catching us.  So we took turns watching for anyone to drive down the road.  We weren't too worried about it because we lived at the end of a dead end road and usually the only traffic was when one of the dad's came home from work and that was always at the same time.  So they we were watching our cave fire burn away, and forgot to watch for cars, and wouldn't you know, Bruce's dad who worked for the Indiana toll road, comes along.  Normally we would not miss his truck because the toll road trucks were bright orange. At the last minute, just before he crossed the bridge to come up the hill, we saw him. So we start throwing dirt on the fire to get it out, but it was still smoking.  He stops. We three stand there and one of us, I am not sure who, but I think it was Bruce, comes up with this story that we were riding our bikes and saw a fire , someone must have thrown a cigarette out and it caught in the leaves., and we were trying to put it out.  You know, we were the heroes!  (YEAH RIGHT)  

  I don't know if he bought that story, but since he didn't see us start it, I guess he gave us the benefit of the doubt ?   Looking back, I realize that with one gust of wind that fire could have spread and that would have been a disaster.  The cigarette punishment would have paled in comparison! 

I have other stories about our mischief, but you know I don't like to make these posts too long so until next time...

Much love,

Lia