Wee Willie Winkie runs through the town,
Rapping at the window, crying through the
lock,
“Are the children in their beds?
Now it’s eight o’clock.”
Okay. First off, who is this
‘Willie Winkie’ guy?
With his only two descriptors: wee
and in his nightgown, much is left to the imagination.
Allowing those of us with a large store
of it to come up with countless possibilities…
Let’s go with the obvious. Wee and
nightgown suggest to me that he is really small—perhaps a child?
And if so, how come he’s not in
bed. Hmmm?
That is like the person who hands the
priest a list of people who didn’t close their eyes or fold their hands reverently
during a prayer at church. This always begs the question: How did he make the
list?
But I digress…
We may also surmise by the whole ‘upstairs
and downstairs’ scenario that Willie is very mobile, which also suggests youth.
I know if it were up to me to run
upstairs and downstairs in my nightgown, exactly one household may be
alerted. The rest are on their own.
And, just for the record, I don’t even
appear out of my own bedroom in my nightgown. Also: as a senior,
I’m probably in bed long before the children.
So there’s that.
Now, the whole ‘rapping at the window’ part.
If anyone rapped at my window, it
would wake me from a coma.
So what window is Willie knocking
at? If it’s the children’s, I’m coming out with a baseball bat.
Just sayin’.
And the whole ‘calling through the
lock’? Okay, yes, the old locks were basically holes in the door. The modern
day lock is not in the least conducive to being called through. Or even
shouted.
Ever tried it?
You can take my word.
And if anyone is calling through
the hole in my door, I’m calling the cops.
And who does he think he is? Demanding
that the children be in their beds by 8 o’clock?
Isn’t that a rather negative
commentary on people’s parenting skills?
I mean, even a truant officer can
only pick on children during the daylight hours.
True story.
So, Wee Willie Winkie, if you’re
thinking of trying these games in the modern world, I can just see the outrage!
And the comments on whatever
Facebook ‘discussion’ page you currently peruse.
“Did anyone else record some small
dude in a dress running through your yard? My alarm system went off right
around 8 PM last night right in the middle of Desperate Housewives and this is what it caught:
[Follows: grainy and creepy night
video of someone flitting across the yard]
He was knocking on the windows and
shouting something unintelligible at the front door. Scared both my cat and my
kids so badly that I couldn’t get any back into bed. My camera didn’t get a clear
view of his face. Did anyone else have something similar happen?
Comments?”
Yep. I can picture it well.
I think poor Wee Willie needs a
modern-day do-over…
W. William Winkie [Ph.D/Psy.D/MFT/MFCC] works in the town,
Here on Nightgown Avenue; upstairs or down
