I tell this story with the hope that my mom and dad will forgive my actions. Perhaps I need to start off every one of these "Monday's Memories" this way! I am sure they may not even remember this, as it happened 25 years ago, but I would hate to think that I am bringing up something that was completely and totally humiliating to them. I also hate to think that there are so many things that I have done that they know nothing about. How did that happen, anyway? I guess growing up in what is now considered "the olden days" I was free to wander and roam of my own free will. That being said, Have I ever mentioned that I grew up kind of poor? OK, maybe really poor. Oh sure, as for the things that REALLY mattered, I was rich. I had wonderful, loving parents and grandparents that blessed my life so much. I had best friends for siblings... and I wouldn't change a THING about my childhood looking back on it. Hey, wait... this is a HUMOR blog, what I am doing?
Well, one year my elementary school was doing a canned food drive. You know, we all walked around our neighborhoods asking people to donate to the needy and hungry. It was great and I remember receiving A LOT of food for the food drive. This sparked an interest in food drives for me. I had never done anything like this before. It all seemed so easy. So, since MY family's pantry seemed a little low on everything except beans and rice from the food storage, it was time for a food drive for us. So, that's exactly what I did. I remember taking my little red wagon door to door telling them that I was on a food drive for my family. I explained our family situation and how we really didn't have anything good in our pantry that others' had in theirs. I had been deprived of such delicacies as "Spaghetti-Os" and other artificial foods. I remember some of the people told me that they didn't have anything. I guess I would do the same thing to someone at my door now. I do, however, remember receiving several cans of food and being quite pleased with what I came home with. I secretly put them in the pantry and hoped that someone would notice that there were two extra cans of cream of mushroom soup, a can of peaches and some sweetened condensed milk. Nobody ever said anything. I just felt good about what I had done - I didn't need the praise of my parents!
You were way weirder than I was!
ReplyDeleteHow embarrasing! I guess it's a good thing we didn't know - we would have been mortified. I hope our neighbors have forgotten about this. One other thing - our pantry was never bare; we just didn't stock up on junk food like some of our neighbors. You were just an envious little 9-year-old. Maybe you'll get lucky, and your kids will do that to you. We forgive you.
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