Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Now We're the Old People

During my teenage years, I found it endlessly fascinating to break social norms. You know, do strange things around strangers just to see their reactions. I spent a half hour riding up and down the elevator at ZCMI with various old people while doing things like singing, banging my head against the wall, or acting like I had never been in an elevator before and was hyperventilating with fear. I dressed like a spy and walked around the mall talking into my wrist watch. I would stage dramatic street fights on corners at night and then laugh and run away if any cars slowed to help.

Yes I was a strange child. Yes I'm more nervous in front of people I know than people I don't know. And yes, I was taking A.P. Psychology at the time and some of those strange antics were actually observation assignments. Isn't psychology great?

Fast forward 12 years and we get a knock on our door one Saturday evening. Dan opens it and sees a kid who looks like his face was chewed off by a pit bull. He's talking in a british accent about the weather.

Dan says, "Are you okay? What happened to your face?"
British boy says, "Took a nasty spill on the playground. Wood chips, ya know?"
Dan says, "Should I call the paramedics?"
British boy, "Oh no. I believe a stroll in the air will do me some good."
And then the boy skips away. When's the last time you saw a 13 year old boy skip?

I worried about that kid all night thinking, "Should we have let that poor boy skip away? What if he had a concussion? amnesia?" But the next day at church I found out from the other kids that Logan (recently recovered from a bike wreck) had just been hanging out in the neighborhood and loved to do random things like knocking on people's doors and talking about the weather in any variety of accents.

And then I realized that now I'm not the goofy kid, I'm the old person that goofy kids pull pranks on. Being the old person isn't nearly as fun.

12 comments:

Amanda D said...

That is hilarious!
I agree - being old stinks.

Amy said...

I wish I could have been friends with you as a teenager! You would have been a riot to hang out with. (Talk about old, though: ignore the fact that we wouldn't have been teenagers at the same time.)

EmmaP said...

You and I have more in common than I thought. Hehe... my son is the one doing stuff like that now.

K said...

That I should LIVE to have seen this day!!! HHHHHAHAAAAAHHAHAHAHA. It happens to EVERY ONE OF US. "Turn down that stupid loud music!!"" Every DANG ONE OF US. Welcome to the true adult world, married mommy lady. I can't wait till you chaperon your sons' band tour -

K said...

Amanda D - OLD?????? How OLD can you be???? I'm not old yet and I'm ANCIENT>

Rhonda said...

BA HA HA! I love it!

C C & R said...

Seriously, that's why I was a psych major...years of staging things and watching people's reaction!

The Willeyes said...

You just made my whole night :) Hilarious!

Jennifer said...

You are one of the most hilarious people ever!! Your "mall antics" are too funny. I was never brave enough to do stuff like that, but I would have loved seeing you do it! And it's hilarious about your neighbor kid--but I agree. It's really not that fun to be the old person!

Rachel said...

Fabulous story. I think I'd be more proned to do some of those things now as an adult than I would have as a kid. What does that say about me???

Freakish!

Ginna said...

Ha! What goes around comes around I say. I loved hanging out with you in high school because you did the most crazy things. I have a feeling that if we went out today sans kids and husband you'd still be a little nuts, what do you think?

Katie Gee said...

I can't stop giggling. "Should I call the paramedics?" Hilarious!! Now my eyes are watering!

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