Day Nineteen of Lent-Joy Rides

If you thought the tree fort story proved what hellions my brother and I were, today's blog may surprise you.

During my freshman year at Arcadia high school I met one of my best friends, Suzanne. I can't tell you the amount of time we spent eating Cookies & Cream ice cream (because her dad worked for Shamrock) and jumping on her trampoline (I only threw up once after eating the fore mentioned food).

Suzanne and I both had a great need for adventure and so we made a great duo. My family was one of tradition and predictability. Every Friday night my parents went out to dinner. One such Friday Suzanne and I were going to hang out together, but both of our parents were out to dinner. Well, my mom's car was in the driveway, the keys were hanging on the hook in their typical fashion, and viola, problem solved. I buzzed right over to Suzanne's (about 3 miles away) picked her up and brought her back to my house. We had barely gotten into the house when my parents returned home from dinner. I wondered if my parents would notice the car was still emitting heat from my race to Suzanne's house . . . it had been a race against time. Time until my parents returned home. Maybe I'm really an adrenaline junkie and need to get some intervention for that?

You may wonder how I ever learned to drive well enough to not crash my mom's car on my little outings?? That, my friend, was thanks to my buddy Paul who taught me how to drive his VW bus, a 5 speed, on Camelback Mountain. The mountain was a great place to learn to drive a stick because of the hills. How I never burned out his clutch remains a mystery. Paul was one of the most patient people I've ever met in my life.

As I got to thinking about how 'strong willed' I was as a child, and quite frankly still am today~I wondered if there are any studies that has been done on children who were little stinkers for their parents. Do they grow up being more successful or do they just have a higher incarceration rate? Anyone else out there wonder?? Or have you read such statistics? I'd love to hear from you.

PS – With all of the Federal money that is spend on very “important” studies, the study has to be out there.