Lesson Learned

One of the great things about being in Columbus, Ohio is spending time with my niece and my "little burrito" nephew. I'm entertained by children and fascinated by their habits, personality formations and the whole nature vs. nurture thingy. My niece is older and she takes it upon herself to teach my nephew lessons about life. I'm impressed by her calm, matter-of-fact lectures. Today I pondered what my older brothers might have taught me.

For the first five years of my life I lived in an old farm house. We had well water, a clawfoot tub in the yard and an outhouse. During the winter, my mom gave us baths in the kitchen sink. One day my older brother was getting a scrub and I was instructed to stay out. He wanted his privacy. Why? Well, because he was a pecker wood and I was a pussy willow (I'm not sure if my dad or if my mom came up with these interesting names). I didn't see what the big deal was; we ran around naked all the time. But my brother, who was about 4 years old, insisted that I WAS NOT allowed to be in the kitchen while his pee wee was showing.

I'm not sure if I opened the kitchen door because I was curious or just to see my brother's reaction. I let my presence be known with a "WOOO HOOOOOO!!!" My timing was wrong though 'cause my brother was already being dried off. He broke away from my mom's grasp and started coming at me full speed. I slammed the door. His fingers got caught but he managed to open the door and punched me HARD in the stomach. AHHHH my stomach huuuurrrrrt. I started wailing and went off to the bed which all five of us shared. I cried for hours, or what seemed like hours to me.

Even though I was crying I understood. Lesson learned. Do not peak when people are naked. That's pretty important, right? My brother used a different method than my niece uses with my nephew, BUT he made his point.