Growing Corn in the........sink?



What you see above is a pretty accurate rendition of what actually happened when I was young. My bedroom was really cool because I had a vanity with large mirrors and it had a sink in it. My parents planned ahead when they were having our house built, and they figured that as I started wearing makeup, I'd need plenty of space to get ready and be able to clean up. I didn't have any other friends who had a sink in their bedroom!

Before I got to the age to wear makeup, I used the vanity and sink for a myriad of "science experiments." I tried to make perfume using shampoo, soap, leftover shampoo...anything I could get my hands on. I had a fish tank on the counter so sometimes, they got to swim around the sink. Anything went in my room.

In all honesty, I can't remember why I had dry kernels of corn in my room but apparently I did. I know this because one day my parents about had a cow because they found sprouts rising up from the sink drain. I must have been working on some mad experiment and accidentally knocked a couple of kernels down the drain. As they got wet and softened, they miraculously started growing.

I think my Dad got them out but I was warned to keep the seeds out of my room. Who knows? I was a goofy kid. My grandparents had a large wooded back yard and they had lots of bird feeders. My favorite thing to do when I went to their house, was dig around in the birdseed and pick out all of the sunflower seeds and eat them. It didn't matter if there were weevils or whatever bugs like seeds, I ate them anyway!

I was also fond of super jaw breakers. My cousin Robin and I would get the ones that were so large, we couldn't get them all the way into our mouths. We'd eat on those suckers, with juice dribbling down our chins and stick fingers messing everything up until we could fit them into our mouth. Then we'd try to bite them into manageable sizes. This never worked so we'd end up laughing and spewing sticky jawbreaker juice all over the place. Besides nearly ruining the plumbing in my sink, I probably almost ruined the carpet in my room, too.

I sure am glad my girls don't have sinks in their rooms. The each have their own sink in the bathroom and I did catch my youngest kidlet trying to make perfume but I managed to catch her in time to cut things short. I just hope they never decide to play with a chemistry set or gasoline or something equally toxic.

As parents, we're much more cautious than the way things used to be. Heck, I don't want my kids eating jawbreakers period! They could choke! And forget providing them with dry corn kernels. I wouldn't even know where to get them. Thank goodness.