Recollections of a Different Perspective
Mar. 21st, 2004 04:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
joshwritingI 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!
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!
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no subject
Date: 2004-04-15 06:04 am (UTC)my family doesnt support reading for fun unless you scream and cry that u dont want to
then its not for fun really
i still refuse to go to bead and just read or write instead
i can rarely just sleep anyway
i still have all my childrensbooks i memorized cuz i read em so often
mom hid my flashlight but i aways found other ways
i love my books