Long Ago, in a Quieter Time

One of my all-time favorite neighbors lives sort of kitty-corner to me. Kitty-corner, one yard down.

BB's an older lady who's a born-and-bred South Floridian. She worked for over 40 years before she retired. Not many women did that, back then.

I find her vastly entertaining.

I stopped by a couple of days ago with some Sin Rolls and fresh-baked bread. No, don't worry, there aren't any hurricanes coming. (I don't think....) This was just regular baking. Well, it was the day before my endoscopy, so it was still comfort cooking, just not Hurricane Baked Goods.

I couldn't stay very long. But I got to say Hi to her gorgeous cat Ruvy, and hear about this incident from her childhood.

Her sister, who now lives across the street, is about 5 years older than she is. Like kids will, Big Sis and her friends made many efforts to ditch BB, the baby of the family, when they played.

One day they did this by playing Hide and Seek. Little BB found a great place to hide, while Big Sis and company promptly ran off on their own, with no intention of looking for BB.

Dastardly!

BB was hiding in the clothes hamper in the bathroom.

She could see out of the little holes in the side of the hamper.

She waited. And waited. And waited.

Hmmm. She must have hid so well Big Sis would NEVER find her!

BB stayed in that hamper for so long, her dad came home from work. And - like we often do when we first get home - headed for the bathroom.

Little BB saw him come in.

Uh-oh. She did NOT want to see her dad using the bathroom. She wasn't quite sure just how boys and girls were different from each other, but she knew they were. She also knew she didn't want to accidentally find out firsthand from her patient dad, who was innocently trying to go about his private business.

So just as he was standing in front of the john, up comes the hamper lid. Little BB crawled over the side, dropped to the ground, and toddled out the bathroom door. Just in the nick of time!

Dad stood there - still decently zipped - and watched her go. He raised his eyebrows just a bit, but he never said a word.

Neither did she.

I asked what Big Sis had to say for herself. Did she get in trouble?

No. She never told anyone. No one ever knew. No one ever found out.

Until I came along, I guess. Now I harbor someone else's ancient family secret. Which secret, you see, I've promptly blabbed to one and all. Because that was long ago, in a quieter time - but me, I'm on the internet.

Something about the image of this tiny child crawling out of that hamper and scampering away, with no explanation to her bemused dad, just cracks me up.