I ran away from home a couple times in my youth. It was not that I had a bad home life, my father was always at work to be able to give us whatever we needed in life and my mother was as loving and caring at one could ever hope or dream for. We may not of always gotten along throughout our lives together, but in the end we were happy. When I ran away, I didn't do it out of spite, I just have always had a nomadic urge in me. Anyway, I watched some random Afternoon Special , A "very special episode"about how kids would run away and be taken in by drug dealers or something like that to get hooked on the dangerous joints that they were passing out to everyone. I don't really remember, but I just wanted to get off of the farm. Running away seemed to me at the time like camping out anyway.
Being from my small town has it perks and cons. Most of the time, I just ended up walking into Commerce and playing the Joust arcade game at the laundromat behind Parhams restaurant since that was considered fun to me at the time. This was the perk. It was close enough that I could walk the 6 miles easily. The con was that since the town was so small, everyone knew my mother, everyone knows my grandmother. EVERYONE. I wanted to get away from what I knew, only to be welcomed by friendly smiles and conversations as I walked down Main Street. This was not what I wanted. I wanted to be a loner. I wanted to be mysterious. So, I would give up and walk home. Most of the time, Mama didn't even realize that I had even gone far. The longest I ever stayed gone was when I attempted to walk to the Firebird Truck Stop, or at least attempted to. I somehow got lost on Hospital Road and went to Will Golden's house to call Granny when the bugs from the lake were annoying me so much that I just wanted to go home. That trip got me a nice whipping.
Once Jill Bridges and I decided to we were going to run away together. Her mother asked us where we were going and we flat out told her that we were running off to Athens to live at the Mall with Tiffany, the singer Tiffany by the way. She laughed as she called my mother and asked that I make sure Jill was home by dark. (She was)
I don't specifically remember doing this but Mama often told the story about how she walked into my room once and found me packing up a suitcase. She asked what I was doing and I told her my usual "Running Away". She then proceeded to help me pack up my toys in the suitcase. She made me a brownbag lunch of some PB&J sandwiches, made sure that I had my Cookie Monster stuffed animal, and some bug spray, and wrapped them all up in a bundle on the top of a broom handle. She then insisted that I sit down for a last meal and a cartoon or two before I went out to make my way in the world. I agreed and sat down in front of the television just in time for my afternoon cartoons. I was so completely distracted by baby Kirk, Thundercats, and my sandwich with chocolate milk that I completely forgot about wanting to leave. While I was distracted she had gone back upstairs and completely unpacked everything since I had completely forgotten about the whole thing.
Being from my small town has it perks and cons. Most of the time, I just ended up walking into Commerce and playing the Joust arcade game at the laundromat behind Parhams restaurant since that was considered fun to me at the time. This was the perk. It was close enough that I could walk the 6 miles easily. The con was that since the town was so small, everyone knew my mother, everyone knows my grandmother. EVERYONE. I wanted to get away from what I knew, only to be welcomed by friendly smiles and conversations as I walked down Main Street. This was not what I wanted. I wanted to be a loner. I wanted to be mysterious. So, I would give up and walk home. Most of the time, Mama didn't even realize that I had even gone far. The longest I ever stayed gone was when I attempted to walk to the Firebird Truck Stop, or at least attempted to. I somehow got lost on Hospital Road and went to Will Golden's house to call Granny when the bugs from the lake were annoying me so much that I just wanted to go home. That trip got me a nice whipping.
Once Jill Bridges and I decided to we were going to run away together. Her mother asked us where we were going and we flat out told her that we were running off to Athens to live at the Mall with Tiffany, the singer Tiffany by the way. She laughed as she called my mother and asked that I make sure Jill was home by dark. (She was)
I don't specifically remember doing this but Mama often told the story about how she walked into my room once and found me packing up a suitcase. She asked what I was doing and I told her my usual "Running Away". She then proceeded to help me pack up my toys in the suitcase. She made me a brownbag lunch of some PB&J sandwiches, made sure that I had my Cookie Monster stuffed animal, and some bug spray, and wrapped them all up in a bundle on the top of a broom handle. She then insisted that I sit down for a last meal and a cartoon or two before I went out to make my way in the world. I agreed and sat down in front of the television just in time for my afternoon cartoons. I was so completely distracted by baby Kirk, Thundercats, and my sandwich with chocolate milk that I completely forgot about wanting to leave. While I was distracted she had gone back upstairs and completely unpacked everything since I had completely forgotten about the whole thing.
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