Mo (Embarrassment)

Well, the title says it all... "Joke's on me!" Mo said before reading out loud; by the time he was done reading, his face had turned the same color as Helen's scarlet hat.

Mo
Embarrassment

Williams Avenue is a one block street, connecting two well traveled streets through a small town. It is a steep hill with little double houses on both sides. When I was about five years old and staying there with my cousins, Joey, Patsy, and Johnny, while my mother was in the hospital, I got to know the kids. It seemed like hundreds who lived or played on the hill.

While having a great time playing “kick the can” I realized I should soon go into Aunt Helen’s house to use the toilet. Continuing to “kick the can” was a big mistake. A terrible odor was invading the other kids. I rushed up the front steps, through the door of the living room, up the steps into the bathroom on the second floor.

The next thing I remember was teasing my little cousin Johnny at breakfast the next morning because his jockey shorts were hanging in a corner of the kitchen after a wash. He had wet his pants the night before.

Aunt Helen looked up from the frying pan and said, “You can’t make fun of Johnny if you’d like me to hang your pants in the backyard for a few days.” Joey, Patsy, and Johnny only laughed a little while as they saw how unbelievably embarrassed I was. Years later when my Dad told me, “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones”. I completely understood.