Mr. St. Clair And The Neighborhood Boy

One summer afternoon in 1959 when I was about 8 years old I was in a the backyard of a neighborhood kid, Charlie St. Clair. We got into a game of tag. There were bedsheets hanging from the backyard clothes line and we started chasing each other through the sheets. Charlie's mother came out and angrily shouted at us to get away from the sheets. A few minutes later, a bit perturbed, I calmly referred to Mrs. St. Clair as a "slob" to another kid. Mrs. St. Clair either overheard what I had said through an open window, or Charlie told her. I did not know exactly what a slob was. I had jokingly been called a slob earlier that day by a neighbor kid for wearing untied sneakers. 

Later that day, or perhaps a day later, I was once again in or near the St. Clair property. Mr. St. Clair came out and called me over. Not suspecting any trouble, I did as requested. Well, Mr. St. Clair hotly snagged me by the arm and pulled me into the house. He forced me down several steps leading to the basement and there ironing some clothes was Mrs. St. Clair. Mr. St. Clair then said to me, "Well, don't you have something to say to my wife?" I didn't know what he was talking about, but at that moment I was sacred to death. I remember that by the time I was there on those steps, I had wet my pants out of abject fright. When I didn't respond, Mr. St. Clair hotly asked me, "Did you or did you not call my wife a slob?" I must have said that I did. He then informed me that I was to apologize. I must have muttered out an apology. Mr. St. Clair then smiled and said, "Now, don't you feel better for saying you're sorry?" He then led me out the door and to safety. 

That was 1959. Obviously I've never forgotten it. I was a little boy who like a lot of kids, can say silly things. To this day the incident makes me angry. I'm not sure, but if the internet existed in 1975, I am not certain that I wouldn't have used the Net to look up the whereabouts of Mr. St. Clair. It probably wouldn't have been a good idea, but back in 1975 I was 24 and just might have done it. I wouldn't have physically injured the man. I probably would have done something to him similar to what he had done to me. I might have taken a photo of myself at age 8 and forced Mr. St. Clair to apologize to it.

Point of all this is, I consider myself a rational, relatively calm person. I was fairly rational in 1975. Yet I might have considered retaliation for a single incident that occured many years earlier in my childhood. Sometimes I find myself, albeit my past self, a little scary. But I also make it a point to treat little kids decently and keep in mind that they are, after all, kids. 

Today there is the internet, and for the record, Mr. St. Clair died a couple years ago, best I can determine through a half hour internet search. Mrs. St. Clair is alive and in her 80s.