Recollections of a Different Perspective

[joshwriting]

I hated going up to bed, when I was a boy. I hated even more being made to go to sleep.

I would make clumpfing sounds as if I were climbing the stairs, to make my folks think that I had gone - and then sit on teh bottom stair, and listen to the conversations or the television or anything that let me remain connected to people.

I would, inevitably, be found and then escorted up - and a little later, I would sneak down again.

How many times we went through that dance I cannot even begin to remember!

Once I was upstairs (Get into bed. get into bed! GET INTO BED!!), I was likely to play with toys or read comics or do anything (but homework) that would put off the actualy time I got into bed.

And then, finally, the last refuge: Reading. Reading by the hallwayt light, if it was left on and the door was open a crack. Reading by the nightlight, if it was bright enough (which it seldom was). And, of course, reading by flashlight, under the blankets.

It is unclear to me if I read more under the covers than above them. I certainly know I did my part to enrich the battery companies - and batteries lasted longer then than they do now! But reading under the covers allowed me to read without getting caught.

Well... maybe not. I think I must have gotten caught about 9 times out of 10. But how do you punish a child for reading under the covers?! Somehow, taking away books seemed counter-productive - don't parents WANT kids to read?!

The sound of the footsteps, the rapid hiding of the book under the pillow and the light switching (shhhhh) off... Closing my eyes and breathing like a sleeping person (I hoped)... waiting to see if she KNEW I was awake.

I am sure that I probably did not pull the wool over her eyes even once - in retrospect - but I thought I had, on many occasions.

I still, sometimes, read under the covers... and lose sleep over my reading habits.

But I wouldn't give it up for the world!

Comments

[nilatao.livejournal.com]

I never read under the covers, but in bed, yes. During spring break one year I read till 3-4am. My mom would wake up the next morning to find me reading in my room, I never went to bed. I had a curfew put on reading. Ten pm on school nights, 1am duing weekends. I couldn't get past it then either because my parents had an ajoining room and could see the lights.

It's so cute to imagine Joshie-woshie as a little boy in his spaceship pajamas. :)