KEEP AWAY FROM CHILDREN
THIS BAG IS NOT A TOY
Every family has their quirks. When I was younger I distinctly remember being warned by my mother that it was very dangerous to put a plastic bag over your head. In fact, it was even dangerous to have a plastic bag anywhere near your head. My mother told me that she knew a kid when she was young who had a plastic bag over her head and she suffocated and died.
Another family I know has a myth about a distant relative (perhaps a second cousin) who was walking down the railroad tracks and got their foot stuck in the tracks and got run over by a train. This myth is so ingrained into the children that the kids run and jump across any train tracks they may come across.
Where’s the point?
Here’s the point:
I looked out the kitchen window, which overlooks the driveway, recently and saw my mother pull in from her trip to Ottawa. I could see her fussing with something about her head but I couldn’t tell what. Then she got out of the car with a plastic shopping bag over her head. Not above her head, but on her head.
You could see that the bag was rolled up in an attempt to make it into a hat. I must stress the word attempt. The bag was down over her eyes and she was stumbling from the car to the house.
Erin and I were laughing so hard that we were crying.
As far as we could make out, it was raining in Ottawa (wasn’t raining in Pembroke) and she didn’t want to ruin her recent hair-do.
We’re going to chalk this one up to a case of “Do as I say, don’t do as I do”.