Family Business
Most people shake their heads in disbelief when I make this confession. They simply can't believe that rennratt, troublemaker extraordinaire, was not a school skipper back in the day. Well, not in the "normal" sense anyway.
From the time I was 12 or 13, my sister and I were forced to skip school at least once a year. You read that correctly: We were forced. By my mum.
As wild, crazy and grossly inappropriate as it may sound, my mother insisted that it was good for us. For ALL of us. There were, however, a few rules involved in this Day. The rules were as follows:
1. The Day would always be Wednesday, as it was my father's day off.
2. My sister and I could have no tests or papers due on this day.
That was pretty much it.
We would always head to Bangor on that day. It would be filled with random trips to the Bangor Library, the local Christian Bookstore, the Bangor Mall (a very big deal)...or even a trip to The Grasshopper Shoppe. We would always stop for sandwiches at The Coffee Pot, grabbing enough for both lunch and dinner that night.
One year, I even ran smack dab into Stephen King when rounding a corner in Downtown Bangor. It was hysterical and horrifying, and I will never forget it. My mum, though not a Stephen King fan (at ALL), knew that this was a huge deal for me and simply smiled as I stumbled through an apology. [He was very nice, by the way.]
And every year, without fail, my mum would send the following note to school:
"Please excuse Zoozer and Renn for missing school yesterday. They were out of town with their parents on Family Business. Sincerely, Mrs. X."
The school never challenged this note, nor did they request additional information.
I, being a traditionally difficult child, called my mother on this letter. It's not that I didn't enjoy this day, either. I simply wanted to get a reaction out of her. The following conversation happened when I was somewhere around 15 or 16:
RR: Mum, this letter is a lie. You're a Christian. God tells us not to lie! Don't you feel bad?
Mum: [turning to me, jaw firmly set]: Rennie, this letter is NOT a lie. I wrote exactly what happened.
RR: How so?
Mum: [raising eyebrows slightly]: You were out of town, in BANGOR. You were with family - your mom and dad. And what we were doing out of town is our business."
She then turned around abruptly and continued washing the dishes.
I rarely challenged her thought process after that.
Fast forward twenty plus years to today. My mother has passed away; my father has remarried. Dad and his bride (whom I lovingly call my Bonus Mom) will be arriving at La Casa tonight for a four day visit. I was going through the 'activities' list for the weekend, and noted that Friday might be a bust.
When Chachi asked why, I noted that he had to work and Nooze had school. Any activity chosen had to work within your average school day. Chachi shook his head 'no'. I looked at him in confusion, and he smiled.
"Keep Nooze home tomorrow," he said.
I mentioned her weekly spelling test, and he shrugged. "She's a straight A student, she's on the Principal's List, she's a K-Kid. She has a great record with the school, and she hasn't seen her grandparents in a year. She can miss one test."
When I asked what I'd write on the excuse, he smiled and replied, "Family Business! Just leave town for a while so the letter isn't a lie."
From the time I was 12 or 13, my sister and I were forced to skip school at least once a year. You read that correctly: We were forced. By my mum.
As wild, crazy and grossly inappropriate as it may sound, my mother insisted that it was good for us. For ALL of us. There were, however, a few rules involved in this Day. The rules were as follows:
1. The Day would always be Wednesday, as it was my father's day off.
2. My sister and I could have no tests or papers due on this day.
That was pretty much it.
We would always head to Bangor on that day. It would be filled with random trips to the Bangor Library, the local Christian Bookstore, the Bangor Mall (a very big deal)...or even a trip to The Grasshopper Shoppe. We would always stop for sandwiches at The Coffee Pot, grabbing enough for both lunch and dinner that night.
One year, I even ran smack dab into Stephen King when rounding a corner in Downtown Bangor. It was hysterical and horrifying, and I will never forget it. My mum, though not a Stephen King fan (at ALL), knew that this was a huge deal for me and simply smiled as I stumbled through an apology. [He was very nice, by the way.]
And every year, without fail, my mum would send the following note to school:
"Please excuse Zoozer and Renn for missing school yesterday. They were out of town with their parents on Family Business. Sincerely, Mrs. X."
The school never challenged this note, nor did they request additional information.
I, being a traditionally difficult child, called my mother on this letter. It's not that I didn't enjoy this day, either. I simply wanted to get a reaction out of her. The following conversation happened when I was somewhere around 15 or 16:
RR: Mum, this letter is a lie. You're a Christian. God tells us not to lie! Don't you feel bad?
Mum: [turning to me, jaw firmly set]: Rennie, this letter is NOT a lie. I wrote exactly what happened.
RR: How so?
Mum: [raising eyebrows slightly]: You were out of town, in BANGOR. You were with family - your mom and dad. And what we were doing out of town is our business."
She then turned around abruptly and continued washing the dishes.
I rarely challenged her thought process after that.
Fast forward twenty plus years to today. My mother has passed away; my father has remarried. Dad and his bride (whom I lovingly call my Bonus Mom) will be arriving at La Casa tonight for a four day visit. I was going through the 'activities' list for the weekend, and noted that Friday might be a bust.
When Chachi asked why, I noted that he had to work and Nooze had school. Any activity chosen had to work within your average school day. Chachi shook his head 'no'. I looked at him in confusion, and he smiled.
"Keep Nooze home tomorrow," he said.
I mentioned her weekly spelling test, and he shrugged. "She's a straight A student, she's on the Principal's List, she's a K-Kid. She has a great record with the school, and she hasn't seen her grandparents in a year. She can miss one test."
When I asked what I'd write on the excuse, he smiled and replied, "Family Business! Just leave town for a while so the letter isn't a lie."
posted by rennratt at 10:49 AM
11 Comments:
No wonder you love him. :)
Man, I wish my mom had been that cool. She was way too uptight for that. But when Mom left my with my sister for 2 weeks when Old Man River broke his neck, my sister forged my mom's name on THREE notes. Best two weeks of my adolescent life.
I now have the utmost respect for your mother, Renn. What a good thing to do. And Chachi - he's a keeper!
Enjoy your family tomorrow.
Now how cool is that? See I did that once -- only once -- for my son during his senior year of high school. But by that time he'd been all-but-accepted to his college of choice (he'd actually been accepted by the university, but in order to be accepted by the School of Music, he had to audition).
My parents did this once -- and only once -- for me. Also during senior year, the day before winter break began when there was nothing (literally nothing) on the schedule except seven iterations of the usual "have a great holiday" session. The fact that I'd been working seven nights a week for the entire month of December finally caught up to me and I literally could.not.drag.my.17-year-old.ass.out.of.bed. so what did I do with this bonus day off? I slept until 5:00 pm, got up, and went to work.
Your folks were way cooler.
Everyone needs a day off for family business every so often. I think that is so cool! Heck, I pulled my oldest out of school for a week last year for a trip to Disney World... And, I didn't even make anything up to cover for it! LOL.
Family bidness is family bidness!
That sounds like an awesome way to have a bit of special time with your family! Hope you did it and had a blast.
I hope you all had a fine day!
We're taking the boys out next Friday and the Monday after to go see their Grandmother in Boston. It's the first time we've ever done anything like that but Sweety's afraid if we don't go now that we'll regret it later.
aww this post made me sad for some reason.
what an awesome family :)
I wish we could clone Chachi.
Sounds like a perfectly fine solution to me! Hope you all had a wonderful time - and that Thanksgiving was also filled with blessings of family, friends, good food and memory making mayhem!
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