Oh, Johnny.

    

   I woke up early one morning - around 5 AM. I went to the bathroom then came back to bed. As I lay down and was just sinking back into my pillow, a funny memory flashed through my mind.

   When I started school, we did not have kindergarten. School started with first grade. I rode a school bus to school and on this school bus was a boy named Johnny. Johnny was also in my class at school.

   I had long hair, which I wore in two long braids. Johnny would constantly try to pull my hair and laugh when he succeeded. I hated him for that but when I would complain about it, everyone would say that Johnny liked me. "He wouldn't even bother you if he didn't like you."

    Johnny liked me so much that he didn't limit himself to the school bus. One day on the playground, he called me "Moon pie face!" And he kept calling me "Moon pie face."  I told him that I was going to tell the teacher. At first he didn't think I would, so he kept at this annoyance.  I marched right off the playground and into the classroom. The teacher was busy stacking items on the shelves and didn't stop as I walked up to give my report.

     I was furious and began "Johnny called me a name."

     "What did he call you?" She asked.

     "He called me Moon Pie Face!" I said.

      "Oh, that's not so bad. We all like moon pies. They're delicious." She replied.

     Then she added, "He's just calling you that because he likes you."

Once again, someone is pointing out how much Johnny 'likes' me.

    At this point, my teacher says "Now go back outside and play. If you keep coming in, carrying tales, I'm going to give you a paddling."

    I was stunned and disappointed at her response.

    I walked back to the playground, all dejected.

    Johnny comes running up to me and asks what happened with the teacher.

    I looked at him with my sternest look and said that the teacher said  "If you don't stop calling me names, she's going to give you a paddling."

I never heard another Moon Pie from him.

     When that early morning memory hit me, I laughed. Some 50 years later, I realized that I got away with it - carrying tales. Sometimes a girl just has to write her own rules.  

     



   It's been a long day. Well, it's actually been the regular length of a day but this one has seemed longer. One great thing is that it was sunny today. On the back side of that is that it's been chilly all day. I wore a denim jacket today that I've owned for 15 years and tonight I decided that I am going to clean it and give it away. It didn't keep me warm at all so, "begone!"
   I had a lot of running to do for my husband at his building in Anderson. Then he and I went to see a dear, old friend. After that, we went to dinner and then to a play at the Phoenix Theater. To our friends who could not accompany us, I will say one thing - "You dodged a bullet!" There were only 11 people in the audience and the actors were so full of drama that at one point when the two main, male actors were looking at each other - "dramatically," I wanted to heckle them with "kiss him!" I almost lost it when the two of them looked toward the horizon like those folks on One Life to Live or some other sappy, soap story and one of them said "I miss the trees!" I was so close...
It's one of those "this is so serious that it's funny," kind of things.
    Anyway, we didn't get home until late, so I added the above story which I had already written a while back, instead of the travel story that I'd promised.
    Good night.