Stories from the Stringam Family Ranches of Southern Alberta

From the 50s and 60s to today . . .



Friday, August 22, 2014

Sneaky-ness Detected

Our eldest son isn't someone who could be considered 'sneaky'.

In fact, I think he swings quite the other way.
Oh, he tries.
In fact, when he was little, he used to fancy himself a ninja.
The master of subtlety and sneak-iness.
But when it came to actually . . . shifting the blame, or obfuscation of facts?
He was lost.
And oddly enough, it was usually because he couldn’t bear to leave things in a disorderly manner.
Let's face it. Sneaking into other people's possessions, and tidying them before you leave?
Better than they were before?
Not the most subtle of practices.
When ES was 12, his scout group was fund-raising.
He dutifully received his case of chocolate-covered almonds.
I should point out that he was supposed to sell them.
He didn't.
The case rested - for safety's sake and because I knew my almond-loving son - on the floor in my bedroom.
Daily, I lifted one of the boxes on top and rattled it.
Just to make sure it hadn't been tampered with.
In hindsight, I should have dug deeper.
Moving on . . .
The evening came when we had been planning to go door-to-door.
I lifted the case.
It was surprisingly light.
Much too light.
I discovered that the only boxes that actually contained almonds were the four on the top.
ES had been systematically eating the rest.
Then tidily sealing the empties and putting them back into the box.
Sigh.
He also had a thing for ice cream.
The sneaking of which was a family Olympic sport.
But where the other kids would grab a spoon and sneak a bite, then dispose of said spoon into the sink where it would instantly achieve anonymity, ES would get out a bowl.
And spoon.
Sneak his ice cream.
Then rinse the bowl and spoon.
And set them in the freezer.
With the ice cream.
Remember what I said about subtlety?
Yep. Not happening.
Years have passed.
I can't comment about his almond/ice cream snitching ways or their effectiveness today.
His wife and his kids have to worry about that.
It's a perfect world.

20 comments:

  1. A tidy kid...never mind the sneakiness....a TIDY kid....

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm with Delores - tidy gets major points with me! So funny!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Most of the time, it was fantastic. On occasion, though . . .

      Delete
  3. You don't know how lucky you are. We all have sneaky children, but most of us don't get left with something to laugh about. I don't think I could reprimand that kid, I couldn't stop laughing long enough.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah. Mostly he got, "Mark! Were you in the ice cream?" To which his inevitable reply was, "Why did you think it was me?" Who can get mad at that?!

      Delete
  4. All boys think they are ninjas. Just sayin'.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Some stuff is worth the risk! Like ice cream and almonds.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Chocolate covered almonds!
    Mmmmm, I would have sneaked a few of those myself.

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a fun post about your brother. I think when it gets to the ice cream part; I am with him on that one. I can relate with this one I have some sneaky children in my family.
    Blessings and hugs for this one~

    ReplyDelete
  8. I remember when Jello offered car and aircraft picture wheels in their packages during the early 60s. I always anticipated opening a fresh package of Jello and getting the wheels. Trouble was, for several packages there were no wheels. I soon found out that my older brother carefully opened the cartons, removed the wheels then glued them back together again. I could've shot him.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sneaky - maybe. Smart - definitely! The way he snuck those almonds was a well thought-out plan!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I definitely would have to charge him with pre-meditated sneakiness! :)

      Delete
  10. How I longed to have a child like that!

    ReplyDelete

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