Move over, Walt Disney ...
Dad's Sleep Adventure
I remember when I was a child, usually to prove a specific point, my grampa would shame us into behaving with one of his hardship stories ...
“Kids today, you have it so easy. Why, when I was a boy, we walked to school every morning, snow, rain or shine —three miles each way —carrying our horse.”
We only lived a mile from both, our elementary school and our high school and we walked both ways, too. But it was because our little town didn’t have a school bus and our town-ified families didn’t have horses or mules ...
Now if the weather was really bad, like heavy rain, or sleet, we were to wake Dad up and he would drive us to school. I always felt guilty doing that though, because he worked swing shift at the steel mill where he was a foreman and we knew he needed his sleep.
One wintery morning, we woke up to find everything outside coated in what looked like glass. All the trees and bushes were shiny and their branches were bent way over and frozen in place. It looked like a winter wonderland.
Frozen rain was still coming down. I could hear the tiny pellets striking the window glass. This would have to be a day to wake Daddy up for a ride. The sidewalks would all be a sheet of ice for walking.
I went in their bedroom and Dad was asleep and snoring quietly. I gently shook his shoulder.
“Daddy? I’m sorry to wake you, but it’s pretty bad weather out there. It looks like it’s sleeting. Would you please drive us to school?”
“Mmgrfht? Hhhmft.”
I gently shook his shoulder again. “Daddy? Can you hear me?”
“Mmgrfht? Hhhmft.”
“Daddy? I’m sorry to have to wake you. It looks like it sleeted all night and it’s still coming down. Would you please drive us to school?”
“Do you see her? There! Do you see that girl?”
“What girl, Daddy?”
“That girl. The one that walked out of the woods, just now.”
“Daddy? You’re still dreaming. Please wake up. It’s sleeting outside and you told us to wake you up and you would drive us to school.”
“Well, if you won’t believe me, you won’t believe Walt Disney either!”
(sigh)
The ice storm was actually so bad that we were glad when the radio announced schools were closed for the day. It was too dangerous for anyone to be out, walking, or driving.
CJ’s World is reader supported.
If you enjoy my writing,
please be a paid subscriber
so I can continue writing.