CAMDEN — Late last year, did any of you happen to see a small news blurb in out state paper regarding this topic? A senior girl in a Dallas high school was pulled over by a state trooper and fined over $500. She was not only speeding, but was caught texting while driving erratically on a city street. She was incensed, caused a scene and threatened the ticketing policeman with a “lawsuit my family will surely pursue.”
The policeman explained the ticket was valid because of all the warnings about the speed limit and texting while driving. Her answer: “Well, I will have you know I was calling Walgreens to let my boss know I was running late. My father is a partner in a large company here, and he always calls or texts his office while driving.”
The ticket stood and had to be paid.
Monkey see - monkey do.
While writing a column about my dear Willie Mae who had such a great influence on my life, I related this story.
I came in from fourth grade one day to find that my new puppy had chewed on one of my Nancy Drew books. I got right down in his face and said, “You do that again, and I am going to knock the crap out of you!”
“Chile, where’d you hear that bad word?” asked Willie Mae.
“At school. Everyone has been saying it,” I replied.
She jerked me up by my arm, with my feet dangling off the floor and said, “Well, it’s a BAD word, and if I ever hear you use it again, you gonna’ find out EXACTLY what Lux Flakes taste like!” and whopped me on the bottom.
It was the only time I ever remember her being really mad at me. All because: “Monkey see – monkey do.”
Mamma didn’t allow me to chew gum in church. Yet, one day, I was sitting with some other kids and was offered a piece of Double-Bubble gum…the kind wrapped in a yellow and red twist paper. Louise began blowing bubbles and I chewed my own gum soft enough to blow a bigger bubble than hers. It popped with the sound of dynamite and went all over my face. Giggling started. Mamma looked back at me. She left the piano after the final verse, came down to where I sat and then marched me back up to sit beside her at the piano, my face still covered in gum.
Back at home, she said, “Go out to the hedge.”
I headed out the back door, crying and saying “But Louise chews gum in church!,” as I fetched a “switch” from the hedge. You would have thought my humiliation of sitting by her on the piano bench would have been enough. Wrong. Monkey see–Monkey do.
At age 11, I was baptized at Jenkins Ferry in muddy water. Some years later, Carthage Baptist Church got a baptistry and that was really a BIG thing for us. My young niece, Sharon, and her friend, Pat - along with other young people of the community - watched this miraculous accessory added to the space behind the choir loft.
After the workmen finished, Bro. Earl filled it with water to check for any leaks and then left for lunch. Young Sharon and young Pat saw their chance! They decided to try it out. Pat went first and Sharon followed as they took the initial ‘dip’ into the new baptistry. Later, Sharon arrived back at her house dripping wet and to her dismay, her father was still at lunch at home. She’d hoped he’d returned to the store.
“Sharon! Where have you been? And how did you get so wet??” Tender hearted little Sharon burst into tears and confessed. When admonished by her dad (which VERY rarely happened to Daddy’s little girl) she gave the excuse, “But Pat went in first and Bro. Earl is his grandpa!” Monkey see - monkey do.
Another family story: My grandmother, “Mammy,” raised nine children in a small two-bedroom house. The parents’ bed was in the “front room.”
For several weeks, she had noticed a spot on the window screen in the boys’ room had been appearing dark…then, later, it began to rust. She questioned the boys about if they knew what happened. They all shook their heads in the negative–they didn’t know what could have happened to that window screen.
One morning, she was walking around the outside of the house and noticed a distinct wet spot in the dirt below the same window.
Up early the following morning, she tip-toed to the boys’ door and peeked in. There, in front of the window, stood her five-year-old Uncle Clyde - with nightshirt raised and held with one hand while he “saved a walk down to the outhouse at the back.”
“Clyde!” She raged, “What are you doing??” He answered truthfully with a term I will not print here.
“Son,” she continued, “You just can’t do that! When you need to go, you go down to the toilet. You know, we don’t have a lot of money and we are lucky to have window screens when some other people can’t afford them. Screens cost MONEY! Why on earth would you do this?”
He looked at her with wide, innocent eyes, and replied, “Well, Mamma, Walter and Virgil do it all the time.” Monkey see – monkey do.
(Brenda Miles is an award winning columnist and author living in Hot Springs Village. She responds to all e-mail at brenstar @att.net.)