Patio Furniture and a Black Bottom Pool

As I have been contemplating names for this blog, one story from my childhood keeps coming into my mind. It was during the summer of 4th or 5th grade. My cousin David and I were playing Pop Warner football, and our practices were in the evenings. I have no idea where my sister or cousin Shannon were during this 2 week period, my mind has been scarred by the events to be named. Anyways, our parents decided that it would be a good idea for us to hang out together, with a responsible babysitter, so we could get to practice at 3:00 and nobody would have to leave work early to get us there. The decision was made that Uncle Carey and Aunt Karen's house would be the place, and my Dad found some girl (lets call her Sarah) from the youth group at church to come watch us.

In my mind this was the best scenario possible. My cousin David and I got along really well, he was 2 years younger than me so he would do what I wanted, and he had a pool. Jackpot!! Every morning my dad would drop me off on his way to work, we would hang out all day, and Sarah would get us ready for practice and drop us off at 3. We had all day to watch TV, play outside, and most importantly swim.

Let me take a second to explain this pool. My aunt and uncle lived in an awesome neighborhood. There were plenty of other kids to hang out with, or we could play in the backyard. For as long as I can remember my aunt and uncle have had an awesome backyard. We would play catch, tag, anything we could think of. Then one day my uncle made the greatest announcement ever, they were putting in a pool. What elementary school kid wouldn't love that news? This pool was not a normal pool either. It was big, had a great patio built around it, and was black bottomed. At this time, black bottom pools were the coolest thing ever. They keep the water nice and warm, and if nothing else look pretty freakin cool. Anyways, back to the story.

For the first week or so the situation was perfect. We would play in the house until it the sun came up and then we were off and running. Whether we were playing air hockey next door, Tecmo Bowl across the street at Willie's, or swimming in the pool, we were on the go all day. The most relaxing thing we did was watch this old movie about "The story of Big Foot", the monster truck. I honestly have no clue how I even functioned at practice at nights. All this time, I can't even remember what Sarah did all day! I know she took us to a movie once, I think it was "Hocus Pocus" or "Mrs. Doubtfire", but other than that I have very little recollection of this girl, I can't even remember her name! Anyways, the point is that all of our shenanigans went unnoticed to any supervision.

However, as you all know, after a while even the most exciting things get mundane if you don't throw a curve ball now and then. So, I have to admit that I came up with an AWESOME plan! I thought that it would be fun to get the patio furniture, place it at the edge of the pool, and do various stunt-man like falls off the furniture into the pool. We did this for hours!! So much, actually, that we got too tired to drag them out of the pool and ended up sitting in the chairs in the shallow end for awhile. What better way to spend a summer afternoon?

Well, off to practice we went and the events of the day faded into the background. After practice my Dad took me home and we sat down for a relaxing night at home. (Now that I think about it my sister and mom might have been in Sweden since I can't remember mom being around either) I don't remember what time it was, but I do remember the tone of my father's voice as he yelled "ROBERT RUSSELL!!!" down the hallway to my room. I, as an average 5th grade boy, was very familiar with the use of middle names and what that implied.

Apparently. when you take a metal patio chair, that is painted white, and you forcefully throw (or ride) it into a black bottom pool you tend to leave big white scratches in the finish. Woops!! If you know anything about my family you know that the last thing you want to do is upset a Dunkle (my grandmother's maiden name). Well, my Aunt Karen was, how would you say, a little peeved that her new pool was damaged. I will not go into detail about what was said, as that is not the important part of this story. Let's just say that David and I were in very big trouble. I still see the look in my Aunt's face in my darkest nightmares!! David has said that almost all other childhood memories have been blocked by this one day of horror. This is truly the first story that
comes to mind from my childhood whenever I start to reminisce.

I have this feeling that our parents would rather this not be the over-arching memory that covers our childhood like a big blanket. Trust me, we had a great childhood and I have awesome family memories, this one just pops into my head first. I think it may have been the first time I really saw another adult REALLY mad at me. Sure, my parents have been mad at me, and I had been in trouble at school (those stories might show up later) but this was different.

This story came to mind last week. At youth group last Wednesday we were talking about friendships. We were creating a list of attributes that are found in a good friend. One of the students said patience (or something that led to a discussion about patience). He said that good friends don't let each other make impulse decisions, but they take the time to help you think through to the end and make sure you are doing the right thing.

How often are the decisions we make on a whim the wrong choices? Maybe this isn't true for you, but I can admit that the stupid choices I have made in my life have not had a lot of planning or thought put into them. We tend to make selfish choices as fast as possible so we do not have the time to talk ourselves out of them. As soon as we can justify the choice to ourselves, BOOM, we make it. Think about it, how much time do you take trying to talk yourself out of a bad choice that you really want to do? Why would you? I wanted nothing more than to ride patio furniture into the pool, and I don't think my cousin and I spent much time debating the things that could have gone wrong. We thought it would be fun and just jumped. Justifying your selfish desires is a very slippery slope to walk down. It starts out with patio furniture when you are little, but as you get older you have real, life altering choices to make. Choices about who to date, where to draw the line physically, what parties to go to, where to live, who to marry, what career to pursue, etc. As you get older the consequences of your actions have a more lasting effect on your life and the lives of those around you. That is what our childhood is for, to train us for life after the buffer of mom and dad. I am not sure that the decisions I made during elementary school school really changed my life, but I know that I still carry scars from some that I made in high school. Every year that goes by the stakes get higher, and I think that is why you have to learn these lessons early. The sooner you take a second to contemplate the effect your choice will have on your future, or the people around you, the easier it will be to avoid bad decisions and the pain that comes from them. I know that had I taken some more time to think about the impact of those chairs on that pool, my Aunt Karen might not stare at me every time I go in her backyard!!!