5 pairs of clean underwear, 4 Twinkies and a Christmas stocking

I had a childhood memory this morning and just had to laugh at myself.

When I was just a little thing, my mom wouldn't let me do something I wanted to do and I got mad. I honestly can't remember what that thing was (obviously it wasn't that important in the scheme of things, lol!), so I told her that if she wouldn't let me do it, I was going to run away.

She shocked me and hurt my feelings by telling me that she really didn't want me to run away, but she would respect my feelings and let me go.


I was so mad and hurt and clearly not thinking straight that I went and got my older sister's red lunch box and packed it with 5 pairs of clean underwear, 4 Twinkies and my Christmas stocking. I went to the front door and my mom followed me there. I looked at her and she looked at me. Nothing...

So I asked her, "Aren't you going to stop me?"

She replied, "No, I'm not. I really don't want you to go, but I love you so much that I can't stop you."

I burst out in tears and cried, "See! I knew it! You don't love me and don't even care about me! Moms that love their kids don't let them run away!"

Mom held open the door and told me to go ahead and leave if I felt I must and while I was gone, to think about why things were so terrible at home. If after I thought about it and realized I really did have it bad here, then go search for a new family, but if I decided I was mistaken and was wrong, to please come back home.

I was heartbroken and bawling my eyes out, but being the stubborn little thing that I was, I left and started walking down the street, red lunch box in hand. I went to the woods at the end of our street, found the Cuckoo nest my sister and her friends had made out of leaves nestled between three fallen branches forming a triangle and sat down. I opened my lunch box and started eating the Twinkies as I settled myself down.

I watched ants crawling on the branches, listened to the birds chirping overhead, listened to the leaves rustling in the breeze and to the creek gently flowing along a short distance away, all the while eating Twinkies and becoming calmer.

When the Twinkies were gone, I realized I had no more food. I thought about the apple orchard at the other end of the woods but remembered the older kids say that an old farmer shot at them the last time they went there to pick apples.

So I decided that I should go back home or I would starve to death. When I got back, my mom said," I see you're back. What made you decide to come back home?"

I told her that I was out of Twinkies! Haha!


So much for my mom's child psychology or the way to a kid's heart is through the stomach?



Terra