Photo credit: The Lady
My Real Memoir
One of the advantages of living on a busy street (ours was the main route through the neighborhood) is that there’s a never-ending supply of drivers in need of something to liven up their day. Like, say, being pranked by an eight-year-old.
Our brand-new burb had been built on the site of an old olive grove, like Spanish land-grant old. So, even though our little spray-stuccoed SoCal ranch home was new, the olive tree in our front yard was probably planted by, heck, Zorro himself! The tree produced huge purple olives, which were inedible, but…
Not long after we moved in, I discovered if you gently squeezed them, they’d quickly turn into purple olive-juice bombs! Even after a light toss they would explode when they landed on something, like, say, a car window.
I know. You’re thinking: “Cool!”
So we started hiding in the bushes and lobbing “olive grenades” at passing cars. When one hit home, there would be a big, juicy splat! The car would screech to a halt, and the driver would leap out, yelling something like, “You %&$@)*#?-ing kids!”
It was all good clean messy fun until Mom spotted us. My fellow-perps quickly vanished. But Mom knew where I lived. So she grounded me and pronounced the dreaded WUYFCH sentence!
Yes, Dad spanked me. But not very hard. And he was trying not to grin the whole time. Then, after explaining the dangers of causing a mini-carmageddon, he said, “There are harmless pranks, you know.” He told me about how, when he was a kid, they’d tie a length of clear fishing line to a wallet, stick a dollar bill half-way out of it, and place it in the middle of the street… Then, Dad casually mentioned he had an old wallet he wasn’t using.
The Wallet Trick was way better than Olive Grenades! We’d watch drivers slow down, and occasionally get out and reach for the wallet while, holding the other end of the line, we slowly pulled it away. Some would actually follow it before realizing what was happening and sheepishly hurrying back to their car. One guy, stomped on the wallet, took the money, and yelled, “You lose!” But our favorite guy laughed, and shouted, “You got me!” then threw down a $10 bill, which…
I proudly showed Dad that evening.
My Real Memoir is a series. To read the next one, click here.
Mitch Teemley 
I hope kids aren’t reading this. They have enough of their own ideas. lol
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But it’s the duty of each generation to teach the next, just like my father did me. :>)
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Oh Mitch, I’m so thankful you are you!
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Aww, thank you, Joy. Ditto!
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Reblogged this on OPENED HERE >> https:/BOOKS.ESLARN-NET.DE.
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What wonderful memories. This is how children should grow up. Congrats, Mitch! Have a nice week! xx Michael
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You too, my friend!
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Thank you, Mitch! xx Michael 🙂
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What a great story. I didn’t have a pack to run with to do pull pranks. However, I was a big Little Rascals fan and vicariously lived through their escapades – on television!
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Me too, Joe!
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Oh, you little dickens!! 😀
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Ah, the days of harmless pranks. I am afraid some of mine weren’t quite so harmless though. 🙂
Blessings and thanks for the memories.
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;>)
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I want to do the wallet trick! 68 isn’t too old for doing the wallet trick, right?
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Nah, you’re never too old, sis!
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Cool! I am flying to Philly tomorrow for my youngest son’s wedding. My 8 year old great-grandson will be there. I’m going to teach him the wallet trick. ;-D
Just kidding… this grandma doesn’t want her kiddies anywhere near traffic. \@;@/
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Mitch,
I had a dirt clod issue. Dad made me clean up the neighbors house after that. These are all learning moments, right?
Thank you,
Gary
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Yup.
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Sounds like a superb childhood😉 …speaking of olives, my boys would quietly mouth the words “olive juice” to me because it looks as though you’re saying “I love you!” My heart would light up thinking they were so heartfelt, at a distance, with their friends. Lol 😂
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Hah! I’ll have to use that, Karla!
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Jeff used it on me last night was we were driving away in separate cars! I told him what I had shared with you. What a turkey! Lol 😂
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;>)
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That was funny. Sounds like a lot of fun! I was way more fiendish. My cousin and I once flipped flowers upside down (roots were above ground and you guessed it, flowers under the dirt) at our friends house as a joke. I’m sure his mother didn’t think it was funny but at the time we thought it was hilarious. Kids being kids! Funny post!!
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You evil child you!
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Many decades ago, I was involved in something like the olive bomb prank. Another kid and I were killing time on a winter day by lobbing snowballs onto the roofs of truck trailers. (We were atop a low cliff, with a road directly below.) One trucker pulled over, got out of the cab, and chewed us out with admirable intensity and thoroughness. Belatedly realizing that a misthrown snowball could hit a windshield and cause an accident, we regretted our prank and never did it again. That was one eloquent trucker.
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Sadder but wiser.
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colby: got change for a $35
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Ah, good old fashioned fun … not always “clean fun,” though. We had a crabapple tree by our driveway that dropped ripe crabapples all over the pavement, which we were only too happy to run over on our bikes. (Loved that popping-squishing sound.) One day the driveway was so slimy-slipppery that I skidded, fell right into the mess, and went sliding halfway to the end. My mom wasn’t too happy when she saw the clothes she was going to have to try to get clean.
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:>O
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The wallet one sounds fun. lol I used to love pulling harmless pranks as a kid too, but was disappointed when I finally was old enough for jr high camp and pranks officially got banned for the first year. When I eventually found out why I was shocked and full of laughter. It was due to my mom and her friends. Now that the leaders were dealing with the kids of the original pranksters that plagued them years earlier, they didn’t want to risk that we had learned anything from our parents. haha
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;>)
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