Wednesday, November 17, 2010

The Night We Missed Out On Fudge

I’ve written a lot about the summers I spent at my grandmother’s when I was very young. There is no end to the wonderful things I remember about those years. My Aunt Betty was only three months older than I was, and my cousin, Sue, was a month younger. The three of us played together constantly. What one didn’t think of, another did. We were always getting into trouble.

On one particular occasion, it was evening... just about dark. Our mothers were in the kitchen talking. My mother was making fudge, a treat we loved. She made such rich, creamy, chocolate fudge, and enhanced its already scrumptious flavor with black walnuts. It was delectable! We could smell the chocolate mixture cooking as we played in an upstairs bedroom where we were told to stay until the fudge was ready. We could hardly wait!

Suddenly, I realized I had to go to the bathroom. That wouldn’t be a problem today, but that many years ago, in that remote coal town, there was no indoor plumbing! So it was necessary for us to go outside and walk several feet to the outhouse.

The power of suggestion being a mighty force - as soon as I announced that I had to “go,” so did Betty and Sue!

But Sue said, “What if a snake or wild animal attacks us on the way to the outhouse?”

“That is a creepy thought!” Betty said, shivering.

Always the creative one, I said, “Alright scaredy-cats! I have an idea. Why don’t we just open the window, sit on the ledge and pee out? Nobody will ever know.”

It seemed like a good idea so we all agreed to do it… but what we didn’t count on was the fact that the kitchen windows were directly below the bedroom we were in. Downstairs, the grown-ups heard strange noises outside and checked to see what was going on.

Suspecting what we'd done, my grandmother rushed upstairs. She was furious! Snakes and wild animals outside no longer seemed as much of a threat as she did. “Don’t you girls know you could have fallen from this window and killed yourselves? Don’t you ever do that again!” She warned us sternly.

The final blow came when she told us we wouldn’t be getting any fudge. She made us get right into bed, she turned out the light and left. The three of us lay there in the dark breathing in the wonderful aroma of the delicious chocolate fudge. We didn’t talk at all. But just when we were about to fall asleep, we heard footsteps. My mother had sneaked up the stairs to surprise us with a small plate of fudge. If my grandmother ever knew, she didn’t let on. We've always referred to that night as, "The night we missed out on fudge." 

Wink-wink!


3 comments:

shanna said...

This is so funny, peg. it's easy to imagine three young girls doing that. you must have had a fun childhood.

Anonymous said...

Hilarious! Kids did more things like that back then and they never got hurt did they?

Anonymous said...

peggy, i bet your grandmother was in on it to.