When I was a kid, probably around 10 or 11, my brother and I went for a couple of weeks to stay with my Dad's parents, my grandparents, in Baltimore Maryland. While we were there both my Grandparents had a hard time figuring out what to do with us. My Grandpa would offer me a quarter to rub his head and then would fall asleep in the chair and start snoring. I always stopped after he fell asleep because I knew I had earned my quarter. My Grandmother would have us help in the kitchen. She loved to make this sweet, and I mean sweet, applesauce so my brother and I would help her out.
I spent most of the time in the backyard trying to catch the rabbit that was eating from my grandparents garden. I set up a trap for it. It was a box with a stick holding up one side of it. I tied a rope to the stick. I then placed carrots and lettuce under the box and waited behind the lawn chairs for the rabbit to come. I did this every day but the rabbit never would go under the box. It was so frustrating.
This however is not the secret that I have carried all these years. Here it is. To keep my brother and I under control, like we were unruly or something, my Grandpa went to the store and bought us each a sleeve of gumballs. There were about 10 gumballs in each sleeve. He showed them to us and told us that if we were good each day we could have one gumball. He then tacked our "Good boy Gumballs" as he called them above the door to the kitchen.
My brother and I were good for the first couple of days and we got our gumballs. It was a good system that my Grandpa worked out. Each day we got rewarded for being good. Here's the thing, my brother and I were very sneaky. On about the third day when my Grandparents had decided to take a nap, my brother and I found our way into the kitchen. I took a chair from the kitchen table and my brother stood outside the kitchen door keeping watch.
I moved the chair over to the doorway and stepped up onto it. This gave me enough height to reach the top of the "Good boy Gumballs". I opened my brother's pack and asked him what flavor he wanted, he said, "cherry!" So I slipped out all the gumballs until I got to a cherry one and I tossed it to him and then placed all the rest of his gumballs back into his pack. I then got mine down and got a grape one. I tacked both of the packs back up, slide the chair back under the table and my brother and I retreated to the basement to watch TV and chew our illegally acquired gumballs.
We were never caught, Grandpa never counted how many gumballs there were and we never did it again.
Wow, thanks so much for letting me get that off my chest! It has been eating at me for years!
At least maybe you got a laugh out of it!
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