Spare the Rod

Living out in the country.

What should you have to worry about? Especially in 1964.

Summertime comes and all four kids are out of school. With a handful of houses around, the kids run outside in the morning and you might see them for a bite for lunch and later when it gets dark. Checking on them now and then. Back in 1964 as now, there was daylight savings time, which meant dark was nearly 10 pm.

So, the kids go out to play in the morning. The oldest is 11, next 10, next 9 and then one five year old. Plenty of neighborhood kids around, all older than your youngest. Day after day, same routine. The kids play together in the yard, down at the "crick", run down to the neighborhood "cafe/restaurant", throw dirt clods in the fields, whatever it is that kids do in 1964.

But.

Somewhere along the way, the 5 year old doesn't seem to be around. Midday, 1, 2. Wait! Where IS she?

At first the panic doesn't set in. You know she's somewhere. Kids don't disappear.

Then you begin asking the other kids. They're clueless.

You keep looking. No where. And you realize that another girl is also missing. The neighbor girl who's 7 is missing too.

You look. You look. Don't panic. She's here somewhere. All the kids begin in the search.

Don't think about the "crick". DON'T think that she could be somewhere in the creek next to the house. The water is shallow. Well, it's shallow around by the house, but go east and it get deeper.

Everyone is looking everywhere. How long do they all look? Is it minutes or hours?

I can't tell you how long they looked.

All I know is that Robin and I sometime in the late morning made our way to her sister's trailer. It was parked way way in the back of her parent's property. Her oldest sister was married and she and her husband were away.

I don't remember going back to the trailer, only that we did. What I do remember is that Robin's sister had a big console color TV. I don't think we had ANY sized color TV back then. Robin made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

The only memory I have of the whole incident is sitting in front of that TV when my mother opened the door and grabbed my arm. I remember being lifted off of my feet and my mom yelling her head off about where I had been. I seem to remember a good "whoppen" on the way home too.

I cannot imagine her panicked state.

But I do remember she interrupted a good lunch and TV show. What was she thinking?

Sorry Mom.