Monday, April 03, 2006

It's time for school

While growing up, my 7 brothers and I always played practical jokes on each other. One of our favorites was always played upon the LawnWhisperer (John).

John was always somewhat of an anxious kid. I have to assume it was due to the fact that he was smack dab in the middle of everyone. He is number 5 of 9 so he was always pulled in all directions as far his personality. He had to carry some serious weight in our house. My parents relied on him make sure that the hand-hand-hand-hand-me-downs Tough Skins we all wore were going to make it to the younger ones. Being in the middle usually caused him to ride the “hump” (the middle seat over the drive shaft) in the car on family outings. He was considered too young to do certain things, like go to a Phillies game with the older kids. And yet, at the same time, he was considered too old to go see Pete’s dragon with the younger kids.

Anyway, John was somewhat uptight when it came to his scheduled bathroom time in the morning. Since there was only one bathroom and 9 of us trying to get ready each morning, we all had to make best use of the few minutes we were scheduled. The trick we always like to pull on LawnWhisperer was to wake him up at 2:30 in the morning and tell him it was time to go to school. He would jump out of bed, head to the bathroom and shower, brush his teeth and comb his hair without ever looking at the clock. By the time he would go to his room to get dressed he would realize that it was only 2:40 in the morning. The rest of us would sit there and laugh. We must have done this to him at least a dozen times. I am chuckling, right now writing this, just thinking about him getting ready for school 5 hours early.

I don’t know if he ever complained to my parent’s about this. If he did it probably fell on deaf ears. My parent’s were probably like “John? We have a kid named John?”

Today is LawnWhisperer's Birthday. Go and wish him well.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's just cruel..... but hilarious. What did he do to get back at you?

AD

Unknown said...

Good God! What were you doing up at 2:30 in the morning?!

Anonymous said...

Excellent prank. I'm chuckling just reading about it. Payback's a bitch though. How did John get you back?

Charlotte in Pa said...

My Mom did that to us once. All 3 of us got up and got ready for school... and then she said, "Oh, darn, I woke you up an hour early. Since you're ready for school, I guess you might as well do those chores you were supposed to do yesterday." She's a sneaky one, my mom. Of course, that only worked once.

Anonymous said...

Wow, so this does explain why he is the way he is today!!! I hear that now he jumps out of bed and gets ready at 3am.... then tells his wife he thought it was 5, and since he can't go back to sleep, he just leaves for the office by 4am. All this just to avoid the morning routine with waking,dressing, and feeding the kids!!!!

Redneck Mommy said...

Kids are awful. But damn, that was funny. I wish I had thought of it myself!

Nature Girl said...

That's a riot...I bet he learned to appreciate the extra few moments to sleep in when his scheduled time really did come around as he was already ready to go...I'm heading over to wish him a happy day right now. Stacie

oh no...that's doozie of a bunch of letters there I gotta punch in...

Anonymous said...

haha! love it, sounds like something that would go down in my family...lol..

Anonymous said...

Rob's dad (Dave) grew up on a farm. His dad's (Rob's grandad) favorite trick was to rush into his son's room in the wee hours of the morning and yell, "Dave! The cows are out!" Dave would spring out of bed, throw on his overalls and rush downstairs to get his boots, only to find his dad standing there, laughing. Cruel, but hilarious.

Odd Mix said...

My coworkers are asking if I am OK because of the tears streaming down my face and the wheezing of suppressed laughter.

Poor John. Too funny. No wonder he is afraid of the dark.

Ern said...

Oh, that's so mean! I went through a phase where I would just wake up at like 1 in the morning and shower before realizing how early it was. That sucked.

lawnwhisperer said...

Over on my site I mention how I don't like the people that I work with, and over here I will mention that I don't like the people that I used to live with. People are just mean to me. And I am so damn nice.

Anonymous said...

Having siblings is the best.

kimmyk said...

HA! That's priceless!!!

I'm glad it was just my sister and I growing up-we didnt have to deal with this stuff.

I'm off to wish him a happy birthday.

Anonymous said...

Great Story! I want to know what his revenge was!

Unknown said...

Ohhhh I am so glad I never had older brothers. That's just wrong.

Judypatooote said...

OH YES it is good to be back reading your blog.....LOL

Anonymous said...

I'm still a little stuck on the 7 kids thing. Great prank, I agree.