As I ran to the playground, I spotted my “sometimes friend” Betty Green deep in conversation with Rita Lawson, the principal’s snotty daughter. The choice of friendship each day was Betty’s. Her mother and mine were friends, so when when we we at my house or hers, chances are she’d be nice to me, unless she wasn’t. I was a friendly kid and would have played with a rattlesnake. When Betty saw me running up, she turned her back, making it clear she didn’t want my company when she finally had Snotty Rita all to herself. Ignoring her cue I tromped right in. “Wanna play chase?” They didn’t. They were both squalling and loftily resumed their tearful conversation, bonding over shared grief. It seems each had recently discovered the existence of a baby sister, dead and buried long before either of these two snotties were born. I listened in awe, caught up in the drama, knowing I had nothing to offer on the altar of their shared grief.
I rushed in and questioned Mother as soon as I got home. “Did you ever have a baby that died?”
No she didn’t. I had heard women whisper of losing babies. I had no idea what that meant, but it might be worth a try.
“Did you ever lose a baby?” She was hugely pregnant at the time and quite touchy.
“No, now get started on your homework. If you don’t have any, help me with supper.”
I recalled lots of homework. Remembering an ancient picture in a box in Mother’s closet, I prowled till I found it. Aha! This will surely get me in the dead baby club! I slipped it into my math book, the first time that book had been opened at home that year.
Betty and Snotty Rita were still best buddies at recess the next day. I ran up, ignoring their cold looks, as I pulled my prize out of my jacket pocket. “Look, I have a picture of my dead baby sister. She died before I was born.” The sad image of an angelic baby in a white Christening dress, laid out in a homemade wooden coffin, her eyes closed in death was undeniable. Her black hair curled around her tiny face. They examined the picture somberly, giving me sympathetic looks as tears sprung to their eyes. I enjoyed their friendship for about thirty seconds until Betty turned the picture over and found scribbled, “Carrie Louise Perkins, born and died July 7, 1904.” I was out!!!
Oh, I remember those days. For me, I just wasn’t prissy enough. I got shunned after inviting a prissy girl at age six or seven to my house and as my shirt went flying off to run through the sprinklers I shouted,”come on take your shirt off”. She just about died. It was never the same from then on out. sigh. To top it off she made sure everyone knew I was a “nasty” girl. So, so sad.
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I was a rowdy kid and didn’t get the prissy girl stuff either.
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A real good story 🙂
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Thanks. I love yardwork now.
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Oh, no. Busted. You were a child ahead of your time, Miss Linda. 💕
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I was busted a lot.
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Great post. I can relate.
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I love it that you told me.
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Ha ha ha. What an inventive kid. I would have loved being your friend. ❤
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We rarely see anyone try harder. You can’t be blamed for a lack of confidence. 🙂 — Suzanne
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I hung in there.
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HAHA! The things we do as kids to try and join in! 🙂
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Whatever works.
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You were one inquisitive young lady 😄😄 Children never cease to amaze me on what they can come up with..
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So glad I don’t need the snotty girls now.
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I hope the outgrew the snotty behaviour.
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Maybe they did.
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Lol I didn’t know what to expect after seeing that picture.
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A better child would have been heartbroken.
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So sad to see a little baby in a coffin.
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It is. I was a callous child.
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Hahaha! Yes you were.
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Nice try, Ibeth. Chuckle.
Leslie
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I had to try.
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They wouldn’t have been good friends anyway.
Leslie
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So right!
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