Belts and Babysitters

As kids, we had several babysitters. Three of them were siblings from the same family. I remember disliking the oldest sister (Cathy), liking the middle sister (Carla), and having a crush on the youngest (Darla). They probably did not get paid enough to watch the four of us. As a matter of fact, I’m sure you will think the same after reading this.

One summer day, while we were being watched by Carla, the middle sister, my brother Steve and I decided to make a rope out of belts and climb out the second story window. We attached the belts together by just taking the holey end of one belt, and attaching it to the buckle of another belt. When we ran out of buckled belts, we just started tying them together. We tested the “rope” by pulling on it, and our little tug-of-war seemed to stretch the rope, but not break it. At the second-floor window, we tied the top belt to the bunk bed that we had slid over to the window. We threw the other end out the window and it almost reached the ground.

This was a bad idea and Steve and I both knew it. He said I should try it first because I was lighter. I said he should try it first because he was taller and would fall a shorter distance if the rope broke. We went back and forth and finally concluded that neither one of us would go first. Instead, we decided to pull a prank on Carla.

We pulled the belt rope back up in the house, took off the bottom half of belts, and tied them around my waist with some slack belts trailing off. The rest of the belt rope was then lowered out the window where it now only reached half way down the side of the house.

I snuck outside and laid down on the ground under the window. Steve ran to Carla, told her I fell, and ran with her outside to where I was on the ground.

I cannot remember the exact details of what happened in the next few moments or for the rest of the day. As she put her hands on me, I remember jumping up and saying that we fooled her. Her reaction was probably 1% relief and 99% anger. We got in a lot more trouble than we expected and spent the rest of the day in our room. Carla told our parents and the Atari was taken away from us, probably for a week.

Looking back, that was a pretty good prank. I think we should have received lesser punishment due to the creativity. Of course, if my kids did it, I’d take their phones away, probably for a week.