Sneaky, Sneaky, Sneaky

Teen years can be difficult in so many ways. You have to depend on someone to drive you places, you can't come an go as freely as you'd like, entertainment can be challenging and you just feel pinned down. When I was a teen before I could drive, I walked around town a lot. Or rode my bike or skateboard but I can remember being bored a lot.

My best friend and I spent the night at each other's house all the time. My friend's house was a big, old, two story place. The stairs creaked so if we wanted to be sneaky we had to climb or go down the stairs in just the right place to avoid the dreaded squeak. We liked to go out at night (well past curfew) and wander around. Sometimes, we went to a nearby church and hung out there. Other times we'd go to the graveyard to pass the time. Don't ask my why we chose a graveyard. It's sort of creepy looking back on it but that's what we did. The thrill of being out of the house when we weren't supposed to be was a big factor. We were so...naughty.

One time, we decided to sneak out of the window rather than taking the squeaky stairs. My pal's room was on the second floor so we had to exit the window and stretch to get our feet over the front door awning. Once on the awning, we had to really stretch to get our legs far enough out to drop down on top of a window air conditioning unit. Getting to the ground was easy once we were on the a/c. One particular night, my pal didn't stretch quite far enough to reach the unit and she ended up dropping to the ground. That wouldn't have been too bad, except her back hit the corner of the a/c and it gouged her. Seeing as how we were sneaking out, she couldn't yell in pain - she had to scream with her mouth closed.

I hurt just thinking about how hard she hit the a/c and how badly it scratched her back. Maybe that was punishment for sneaking out. Now that I have kids, I hope they never pull the stunts that I did. I cringe just thinking about some of the stuff I did. I'm glad to be on planet earth because some of my "adventures" could have done me in. As a parent, I'd freak if I knew my girls were wandering around town in the dark, hanging out in graveyards, driving cars when they don't have a license and so many other things.

My favorite line to use on my girls is 'do as I say, not as I do.' I'll keep using that line until they're 95 because I still do stupid stuff. Don't you?