Apr14

sometimes i lie awake at night, and i ask, ‘where have i gone wrong?’ then a voice says to me, ‘this is going to take more than one night.  – charles schultz

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burrs_s

once again

it seemed

like a good idea

at the time.

–

i was seven years old

when my

very cute

neighbor/paper boy

jd

 told on me

for riding my bike

where i wasn’t

allowed to be riding

i got caught lying

by my mother

who asked me about it

i never was

a good actress

and there were

consequences

so together

with one of my sisters

and our good friend

we planned

our sweet revenge

in a style

only young children

could create.

–

we would collect

a huge pile of burrs

from the field

behind our houses

hide it in our summer tent

 wait for the boys to show up

and

throw it at him

so he’d see who he messed with.

–

but

it took so long

 it was such a hot summer day

 it was so boring in there

and

i fell asleep in the tent

but somehow curled up

right on our

prickly pile of revenge

and

i woke up

with my hair

horribly embedded

with the all the burrs

so i

 burst out crying

 walked inside

 asking nana

to help me

brush them out

i lost lots of hair

 it hurt

 it took

what seemed like hours

and

when it was over

my hair resembled

a giant ball of split end fuzz

so i

 i went out on the front porch

to relax and eat a popsicle

and saw jd

delivering our paper

and

his hair looked darn good.

–

64 responses »

  3. You’ve inspired me to write about a time or two I lied and got caught or my conscience got the best of me and I admitted something before that could happen. Sorry about your hair but thanks for the memory. Lisa K

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  18. That’s one of the greatest Peanuts quotes.

    Another good but also chilling one was Charlie Brown saying how he would lie awake at night wondering, “Why me?” and then a voice comes to him and says, “Nothing personal, your name just happened to come up.”

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  19. Whoa…”sweet revenge” gone awry……if I were still teaching, I would have asked you if I could have used this with my middle schoolers….Great expression, Beth. And I adore Schultz. He was a very “deep soul” and he died too soon…..

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  27. Oh shoot, Beth! It is like things in life go, sometimes they backfire! I love the way you told this and got to chuckling but bet the burrs really hurt. Sometimes popsicles or ice cream can take the pain away and help forget the revenge!

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  29. Stellar! This is one of those rare posts that masterfully take me back … to a tent, with small saint inside guarding the burrs … worn out from the business of being a kiddo. I can see you (?) crying because life was just a bit out of control. The last line is priceless. ‘Ever heard of Garrison Keillor?

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