Babysitting

 

Yesterday I received the latest issue of Reader’s Digest. At the end of one article on “Your True Stories” was a request for readers to send in their true stories on babysitting. I’ve never submitted anything to this magazine, but immediately a story on that subject came to mind.

My source of extra spending money was bagging charcoal for Mr. Seery at the end of Barclare Lane (see here), followed by working for my uncle on a state forest fire crew. My sister, on the other hand, was very responsible and made some of her spending money doing baby sitting for families in the neighborhood.

A new family had recently moved into the neighborhood. They had two boys. Their legal names were Aloysius and Cornelius, but their nicknames were John and Casey (not sure how those nicknames were chosen). Being several years younger, I knew who they were, but didn’t interact with them – and I had never met their parents either. Here is the story as I sent it in to rd.com:

“I was in my mid-teens and a tall, gangly boy in high school. I had done a few times of babysitting, but my sister who was a year younger was one of the chief babysitters in our neighborhood. One weekend she had two babysitting opportunities the same evening. She asked if I could take one of them for her and I agreed. It was a new family who had recently moved into the area. I knew the two boys in the family as I had seen them running around the neighborhood, but had never been in their house or met their parents. She called them and they were amenable to having me do the babysitting for that evening. At the appropriate time, I walked down the street to their house and knocked on the door. When the dad opened the door, I was surprised to see that both he and his wife were considerably shorter than I was - perhaps just a few inches over 5' compared to my 6'2". Thus, I was looking down at them as I walked into the entryway and reached out to shake their hands. I suddenly clunked my head on the light fixture that was hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the entryway and set it swinging wildly. Alas, it appeared that they had furnished the house to meet their diminished statures - so the bottom of that light was only 6' off the ground. I was apparently the first person visiting them who was tall enough to make them realize that they had hung it too low. Turning my attention away from the couple, I grabbed the light and stopped the oscillations before apologizing to them. It was not the greatest way to make a first impression. However, the rest of the evening went as planned, and they even invited me to babysit again a few weeks later. I noted that by then they had shortened the chain on the entryway light!”

It's always interesting to me the facts and impressions that one remembers from years ago (in this case about six decades ago). I have no idea if the magazine will accept my entry. But perhaps the readers of my blog, while fewer in number, will appreciate it anyway.