Teasing Leesa
Children that are siblings can be very mean to each other just in the name of fun or at least it starts out that way most times. This particular incident I will never forget because I was just teasing Leesa but she certainly didn’t see it that way.
As a youth and the youngest son in the family, born between two girls, made me the one who had to do dishes when I would rather be working outside or so I thought. The older boys were always out doing the chores milking the cows and feeding them as well. There was also bringing the coal into the house and taking the clinkers from the furnace back out. It really sounded fun to a yong boy stuck doing dishes. Well one day my assignment was to clean off the table and Leesa was washing the dishes and Marsha drying them or at least that is the way I think it was. Anyway I don’t remember what led up to this but I really didn’t feel like doing dishes but I was going to make the best of it by teasing Leesa. It worked pretty well apparently because she had finally hit her limit and turned and threw the old ceramic sugar bowl lid at me. She is a pretty good shot because it hit me in the head and so I just slumped down to the floor and closed my eyes and played like I had been knocked out. Well Leesa, being the very tenderhearted sister that she was, went crazy thinking that she had really hurt me and maybe even killed me. I stayed there long enough for her to freak out really well and then I started laughing really hard. It became obvious really fast to her that I was OK but that then just made her mad because she had been so worried about me. I think I did end up with a pretty good goosebump to show for the fun. I don’t remember the punishment but I didn’t have to dishes again that I can remember and instead I began carrying buckets of hot water to the barn,washing the milking equipment, milking cows even in the coldest of weather, hauling hay, feeding the cows and horses, hauling in 4 large buckets of coal at a time into the basement for the furnace, carrying out the buckets of clinkers and of course cutting, raking, baling and hauling the hay. Needless to say what I ended up doing alone for over four years after the boys were all gone (missions, marriage) was a lot harder than doing the dishes. Maybe that was pretty good punishment after all.
