We were given an order with no exceptions, never to go to that place! My grandpa reinforced that with a promise of tanning our hides if he ever caught
us down there. He said it wasn't a safe place to play. We tried not to think about that place, but the dreams, the curiosity and adventure of that
place was almost more than Cindy and I could bear. We talked about it often. I suggested that we sneak over there and do it anyway, but my older
sister said she'd tell if I did. She always was the snitching do good-er between us, even when she was a partaker...she always told and made it sound
like it had been my idea. It had given her the fame of being the honest one, while I was always considered the sneaky one.
I was 6 years old then, but I remember it well.
In the winter, it was easy to resist that place because the weather was crappy, however in the summer, that place called my name. We passed that place
weekly in my grandpa's truck as he drove deep into the trees to burn his weekly trash, that was also the place that my grandpa smoked cigarettes out
of my grandma's view, but that part was a secret that we shouldn't ever talk about. Driving by that string of abandoned 1940 and 50's car buried
in the blackberry bushes...Oh how I wanted to get in one of those cars and pretend that I was driving! There must have been 8 cars there, all one
behind the other lined up in a perfect row. I wanted to drive the blue & white Bel Air, my sister wanted to drive the black car.
One day when we were out riding our bikes on the dirt road, we decided to go down to that place, just to have a look without interfering eyes watching
us. I promised I wouldn't drive one, I just wanted to look at them, so my sister agreed that there was no harm in casually riding by for a look. When
we got there, those cars were wickedly calling our name! I just wanted to look inside one, that was all. Cindy said NO! but I went anyway as if in a
trance of some kind. The next thing I knew I was crawling through the downed window of the blue & white one. "Look!" I yelled "My car has keys!"
Now I just had to drive i!. Cindy stood on the road telling me to "get out of there before you get in trouble" when she suddenly realized how much
fun I was having & seeing that no one was around, she decided to drive the black one.
We lost all track of time, sitting there driving our immobile cars, shifting gears, honking horns... pretending that we were grown up women out and
about running errands, completely oblivious to all the cuts on our arms and legs that the blackberries had caused us. All the sudden I saw something
out the corner of my eye , a man standing standing there with one hand on his hip, in the other hand a cigarette. It was my grandpa with the sternest
look I'd ever seen on his face. He flicked the cigarette between his fingers and it went sailing out of his hand, then he reached down and unbuckled
his belt. We both started to cry, knowing our fate. How had he known we were in the forbidden place?
This picture reminds me of that forbidden place minus the blackberries. That was so much fun, it was worth the spanking
[edit on 6/28/2008 by jensouth31]
