How many times did I, (And some of you) hear that? I don't remember my first day at school. I didn't go to kindergarten or pre-school. I went right to the first grade. I don't even remember my teacher's name. Who was it? I'm hoping that one of you will know. I remember some of my friends, we had mostly gone to Cub Scouts together. I think that we were the Bobcat pack or some kind of feline. I recall my friends at the time to be Chris, Nick, Mark, Josh, Steve... You know, all the most common names. And then there's Seamus. I can honestly say I was the only one. My brothers are Liam and Padraig, so it's quite obvious that we are full blooded Polish.
I just can't quite remember anything that happened in the first grade, with the exception of Sarah. There was another thing that happened with us, so I guess that's where I will go next. We used to sleep over each others houses all the time. Our fathers were best friends, and we quickly became quite good at controlling their minds. When we wanted to have a sleep-over, we sprang into action. Step one was to act as little cocktail servers. They liked their wine, not to an alcoholic point, but as far as I can remember, they always drank wine. I'm not talking Dom Perrignon or Perrier Jouet, no, I'm talking Franzia. The world's finest box wine. A nice 1988, '89 vintage.
So we got them in a good mood with the nectar of the Gods. That's when we really went to work. We would attack them from all angles. "Wouldn't it be nice to have one less kid in the house?" "We'll do yard work we p-r-o-m-i-s-e..." I tell ya', kids make the best negotiators. We got so good at it, we even cracked their secret "code". "We'll see" means yes, and "Maybe" means no. Always. No matter what.
One night, after much manipulation, and plenty of box wine, we got the, "We'll see" we were looking for. I was going to stay at Sarah's that night, and we couldn't have been more happy. Now I don't recall the whole evening, I am sure that we played in the T.V. room. They had a huge projection T.V., which at the time was unheard of. You flipped a switch and this 10 foot screen would come down from the ceiling. The room was built like a theater, with seats built like a giant staircase against the back wall. There was a trapdoor on one of the seats, and inside was a playroom. Toys, barbies, crayons, and Sarah's teddy bear. She loved that teddy bear.
It was time to go to bed. We wanted to sleep upstairs in the attic, where there was another play room. You have to understand, this house was huge. A literal mansion. There was even a little guest house next to it that was rented out. It was connected to the house by a long hallway over the garage, with a few small apartments there as well. I vaguely recall meeting one of the tenants, and I think he gave me some change. A very fuzzy memory.
We couldn't sleep. We were to busy playing UNO. We never slept when we had sleep-overs, there was way to many adventures to be had! So there we were, playing cards, and the lamp next to the bed was much too bright. So we decided to put a towel over the top of it to dim it a bit. We heard a noise at the bottom of the stairs, "Parents!" So we quickly got under the covers and pretended to be asleep. It was Wayne, Sarah's dad. He knew we weren't really sleeping. He noticed the towel over the lamp and made us take it off, telling us that it was a great way to start a fire. We had no idea how ominous those words were...
That's it for now kids, I have work to do. Tune in tonight for the rest of this story, and join me on Facebook! Click the "like" button on this page!
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