09 Apr 2007 11:50 PM

The Fear of George

Now that I’m in my thirties, I can look back on my childhood and appreciate its humor. I drove from Long Beach, California to Union, Washington over Christmas, so that I could take my neighbor’s daughter, Raeshia, with me. The entire month we spent at my mom’s house was such a struggle for me. Raeshia has had no upbringing whatsoever and has never had any rules or structure. We ended up sharing a room together and it really wore on me. It was nearly impossible to get Raeshia to go to bed and stay there. And to STOP TALKING. I would stay up late just trying to get her to fall asleep so that I could come in and fall asleep. If we tried to go to sleep at the same time, she was a motor mouth. I couldn’t even sleep in the same bed with her, because every time she moved the bed would squeak, so I slept on the floor. My headaches were pretty bad and for three nights in a row I went to bed early and she came in and motor mouthed late into the night….up and down, light on, light off, jibber jabble. She just would not obey and made everything into a joke….which doesn’t help with the seriousness considering how funny she can be.

I finally had it and kicked her out of my room. I asked my mom to do what she could with her. My mom put her to bed by introducing her to George. George is what we named our paddle when I was growing up. He is sleek hardwood, with one side carved into a handle. When we got in trouble it was, “Go get George!” This is George #3, since #1 and #2 were broken on MY bottom...I wore them out. (I frequently infuriated my father.) My mom gave Raeshia 10 minutes to get into bed. Raeshia took one look at George and was in bed in under 8 minutes. Look at what one can accomplish with the Fear of George in them.

Raeshia is sneaking a sip of my latte. She thought she was so clever.

She wasn't expecting it to be unsweetened. Her face says, "YUCK!"

She still thinks it was clever. Isn't she cute?

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