Grrr that was a waste of time I feel him wanting to get the stuff we can get done done today but the customer changed the plan and was like hold off. Oh well another one of those "his plans versus the customers schedule" things. Its always fun but back to Marianna:
As a kid I used to traipse my behind from jersey to AR every summer to spend a few weeks up to a month with my "country cousins". I mean I don't know why I quoted that they are from the country I'm talking farms near by(and by near by I mean down the street or next door), open fields, dirt roads, creeks, bunch of ranch houses, and big lawns. And to a young kid used to seeing concrete and grass only around construction sites it was fun. I won't lie I used to run around pretending I was Tom Sawyer(aaah white washing my aunts old barn hmm I guess I could spin that anecdote):
FLASHBACK EFFECT
I remember it was probably like 83-84 the family reunion all us bad behind cousins together. Me(bad grammar be damned I'm telling the story), Vic, Eric, Mark, Herb, Nay nay, Wally, my little sister and a few other little rug rats who's names slip my mind. As was the custom we were all hanging together at one of the aunts houses as we enjoyed some time together. Well it so happens SOMEBODY left a few cans of white paint around, and paint brushes.
Bunch of kids
Paint and paint brushes
A dilapidated building and a warm summers day.
So you know what that means yup "Hey why don't we paint the barn". Now no, we weren't asked, no most of us weren't old enough to be trusted to paint more of the barn that we would ourselves and no it wasn't going to end well.
So?
So we stirred the paint up, found ourselves some stuff to split the paint into and got our resourceful(yeah yeah bad) butts to work. Now half way through our little white washing escapade it was tease the city cousin time. I think it was Vic "Hey Tommy Jr. Tommy Jr.(Yeah yeah I'm a jr. Keep up) you always bragging how you been climbing up there in jersey, you know yall ain got now trees in jersey". Now at the tender age of around 9 or 10 there was not much my little short scrawny tail could do BUT climbing was one of them. "Uh huh" I said(gotta love that young vocabulary) "I could probably climb up to the top of this barn. I could paint the roof"
Now why I say that? Two young kids in a dare contest(basically that boast was throwing down the guantlet I mean how he gone let me make that claim?) and my little 4 foot on my damn tippy toes, MAYBE 40 pounds soakin wet den claimed I could climb all the way up to the top of this here building. So you know him and everybody else got on me to do it. I mean I don't know if we got to the double or triple dog dare but I was dared.
Thing is:skinny, chocolate, bored with a decent wing span for my age and short? You damn right I climbed up the building like a damn chipmunk. Was a few times where I had to crawl out of my way to find a decent beam but I made it to the top. WITH my brush, big old gap tooth smile too as I started painting that ceiling acting like Billy Bad cause for that second I was the man. Whew aaaaaand in about that next breath it all came crashing down. Because who should come into the barn (WITH a SWITCH) but Vic's mom Aunt Francis. Now I know the stop snitching policy wasn't in effect yet but as the switch was flying tappin young thighs and back sides a tear filled eye looked right at me. Yes me safe above the fray because who would think anybodies little bad tail would climb to the top of the barn(hands anybody, anybody, Buehler, Buehler).
Now the dilemna: I could hear the wails and tears of my cousins being punished for painting the barn. I was stuck in the ceiling, with paint on my hands which of course I needed to wash off. And well I didn't want a whoopin, who does come on now let's not even lie. So here we go I wait a few minutes, heart pounding because of course I know Aunt Francis will come back any minute to discover me climbing down. Nope didn't happen, I look around no Aunt Francis I get to the bathroom no Aunt Francis she had this bathroom with that long pipe faucent and basin where we could all wash our hands.
So I sneak in next to Vick(what), I crank up the crocodile tears(don't look at me like that I was trying to protect my poor tender buns okay), and commence to washing my hands. I swear the look in Vicks eyes was bloody murder, Herb and Eric were kinda laughing like hey I took the dare and almost got away with it.
Wait you say right? Almost?
Climbed down: Check
Made it in the bathroom:check
No Aunt in sight: Cheee whoops spoke too soon
In the midst of my Oscar winning ""you whooped me already" performance in comes Vic's mom for one last pass so we know how bad we were. And yes hands full of paint I may not have got as many licks overall as everyone else but I got some. Call it karma, to make matters worse Vick starts laughing now. I mean it wasn't funny to me anymore the ultimate Tom Sawyer experience was just ruined, I would have gone down in city cousin history.
I climbed to the heights
Put some paint on the ceiling
AND got away with it homey you can't beat that with a bat. Its still a fun story though we always get a laugh out of it thinking back. I wonder if I have any old group pictures of us especially from around that time. If I can find one I'll go ahead and post it at the middle of this blog. Yeah fond memories I couldn't tell you where I got my tail whipped at, I used to use car travel time as either sleep or comic book reading time(even if it was too dark and I was straining my eyes yeah yeah mom I know I know).
Aiight I've come, run my errand and we are on our way out. Fields are still here, they've knocked some of the trees down, probably a few less open lots, and few more businesses but I still have the memories. The fun of youth and the misadventures that you come to love. From the suburban kid who was pretty solitary and wasn't able to go too far to hanging with my cousins and running free.
And yes by the muddy Mississippi I did have me some nice little adventures(okay not RIGHT by the Mississippi, but hey does that matter to a kid nope I was living a story book adventure.
Aiight putting this one to bed.(haven't dug up the pic yet so that will come at a later edit
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