| In previous missives I've described various "scare tactics" which were perfected by parents (especially our mother) in the 1950's. This true account is yet another one that was most effectively and exclusively used on me! This was the "I'm going to send you to the Children's Home" threat! On occassions when I was especially being very stubborn, incorrigible and defying (most times), our mother would very convincingly say to me, "If you don't stop (doing/saying/mind, etc., etc.),I'm going to send you to the Children's Home"! WOW! That sure got my immediate attention and compliance (most of the time anyway)! As I look back, it strikes me as a mystery that even at that time I didn't figure that the way I was acting, that the Children's Home wouldn't want me either! Probably after a few minutes there, THEY in turn would threaten to send me back home if I didn't straighten up! Oh well, too bad I didn't realize that then, or I really could have let loose and called her bluff. Quite often this tactic was most effectively used when I refused to do some specific thing she commanded me to do. She would say, "Alright! If you won't do (such and such) I'm calling the Children's Home right now"! She would then ACTUALLY pick up the phone and start dialing! By the time she got to the 2nd digit, I would be flying at roughly the speed of light to do what she told me to do or not do, etc. She never got out the phone book first, so I was convinced she had memorized the number since she had started to dial it so many times. On the other hand, maybe she just knew the first 2 digits since I was off to comply on or before the 2nd one. I never knew exactly where the Children's Home was, but I figured at had to be somewhere close by and local because she never dailed just "O" for the operator, which had to be done in those days for long distance calling. (Hey, I was that kind of kid)! Or I figured she had the "Direct "Hot Line" number for it (they probably gave it to her the first time she called after she described me. My mother always said to me that I was enough to drive a preacher to drink! The main reason this scare tactic ALWAYS worked on me was the only other Children's Home I had to compare it with was the one in the Little Rascals episode called "Mush and Milk". All us "Baby Boomers" remember that one with the mean old lady with the whip that ran the orphanage and "Old Cap", the nice guy that taught school for them. Of course as I grew older, I realized that the threat was totally bogus. Unfortuneately, I now live under the constant fear of not being sent to the Children's Home, now it's the "Old People's Home"! Hmmmm, I wonder if it's located in the same building as the "Children's Home??? If it is, I figure at least it's local! |
