INCH WORM


Remember these? This was like the inch worm I had when I was a little girl. I would hop on my inch worm and go down the street to my friends' houses. You don't just sit on it and push with your feet. You bounce up and down and the accordion-like middle moves you forward.
Once I was hanging out with some friends, when the boy whose house we were at suggested that we all go into the shed and pull down our pants. I must have been about 4 years old. He said that anyone who wanted to participate, should follow him to the shed. Well, we all went into the shed, where he and all the other kids, except me, dropped their drawers. "Sharon," he said, "Aren't you going to pull down your pants?" "No," I said with my arms crossed stubbornly in front of my chest. "If you're not going to pull down your pants, you can't be in the shed with us," he demanded. So I said, "WELL THEN, I'M LEAVING!" and stormed out of the shed, hopped on my inchworm and began bouncing on out of there. I don't know why, but the boy was like, "Okay, you can stay in here. Just come back!" So there I was, the only one fully clothed with all these kids standing around with their goodies hanging out.
Suddenly the door swung open and his mom was standing their horrified. She demanded that we all leave that moment and dragged her son out of the shed, up the back stairs and into his room.
As I climbed back on my inchworm and we all made our way out front to the street, all we could hear was the distinct sound of palm-to-bare-butt spanking and the roaring cries of our little friend. To this day I marvel at how parents back then handled stuff like that. I wonder what ever became of the boy. If I ever see him again, I might be tempted to remind him that my inchworm was bigger than his inchworm.