bummin' with dad

with the beautiful mrs k working saturday morning, i dragged the kids around a bit. we hit the post office (they got suckers, of course), target, and the gas station. i remember doing these things with my dad when i was little, and i liked going everywhere.

my dad called it bummin'. he'd say, "wanna go bummin' with me?" i always jumped at the chance.

i was a holy terror just like my kids are. i wanted to play with everything. i wanted to ask the teller all kinds of questions at the bank. i wanted to pull on the stamp machine handles at the post office. i wanted to hide merchandise on the shelves at the store (a side note for long time st. louisans: remember ONTARIO? it was just across the city line on manchester, just east of hampton.) and see if they were still there on our next visit. i hid under the display racks of clothes until dad got pissed. i drove the grocery carts like they were race cars, pushing them as fast as i could and jumping on, careening down the aisles and terrorizing innocent patrons. if there were buttons to push, i pushed them twice.

if i was good (and even if i wasn't good, and i wasn't ever good when we went bummin') i got a soda, or 'sodie' as my dad called it. we always seemed to make it to the garden shop on hampton and fyler. i usually ripped up some poor plant there, and dumped dirt out, and stepped on some flowers for good measure. and my dad was always keen on picking up some bricks. there was always some building being torn down, and in those days they were brick. so, we'd pull up the car, he'd open the trunk and we'd grab some bricks. he always said that if a cop stopped and asked us what we were doing just to say we didn't know it was illegal. of course i was on the lookout for cops the whole time. and i always ate as many grapes as i could at big bend mart when we went food shopping.

so why am i surprised when i have to spend the whole time disciplining the boys? because i NEVER acted like THAT.....