Mohawk Summer
I had been waiting all year for school to end and for summer to begin and finally, yes finally summer's was here! There were a lot of things I liked about summer: no school, no school, no school, no shoes, we always went on vacation to some fun place and no school.
In 1959 times were very different than today. Kids could go where ever they wanted. In fact, I think my mother was more than happy for me to stay out of her hair and play until nightfall. All kids had to do is return at nightfall (it was some kind of adult rule).
My cousin Carl was coming to visit for the weekend and I was excited because I liked to play with him and he was two years older than I so I felt older around him. There was only one problem with Carl and that was he wasn't very smart. They said he fell on his head as a baby or something. I thought all babies fall on there head at sometime or another but I guess it effects some more than others?
My Aunt Louise dropped Carl off at my house and and then her and my mother went shopping at the new shopping center, they weren't called mall back then. It was my first time that I had ever been left alone (without and adult) in the house. I think my Mom thought that since Carl was ten was considered old enough to take care of things.
After about 10 minutes we were both bored and decided to explore the garage. We were looking around for things to do when Carl found the electric dog clippers. For the first time that I can remember Carl had a great idea because he suggested that we cut our hair like the Mohawk Indians! Wow this was a great idea. First Carl cut my hair and then I cut his and in just a few minutes we were not longer little boys, no now we were INDIANS with all of the natural rights of INDIANS!
Indians didn't walk around in denim jeans so we took them off and our shirts too. It was time to stalk the neighborhood. We stalled the other children and when they saw us coming we went running after them hooting and hollering! The other children ran in fear back to the respective homes. This continued all day.
After a few hours I realized that this little Indian was getting a heck of sunburn, especially on his head. I asked Carl about it and he said it was good because if my head burned and peeled that my hair wouldn't grow back and I could always have the Mohawk hair cut! Sounded great to me.
There was a drive-in theater not far from my house that I used to always sneak into and watch the movies so Carl and I decided to go see the current showing "The Bloob". We had heard it was a great movie. So we made our way to the Sunset Drive-In and climbed over the fence and went to the concession area. That's when one of the drive-in employees asked us for our tickets. We didn't have tickets so we ran away and came back latter. The problem was with the Mohawk hair styles we stood out like sore thumbs. After we escaped for the third time we figured it was time to go home.
It was about ten o'clock when we reached my house. Surprisingly, no one was home. So we both were hungry and made a bowl of cereal and went to bed.
I woke up with someone shaking and slapping me! It was my mother and she was really mad about something. She and her sister had been looking for us for hours and had become afraid that we had drown or been hit by a car. I never did figure out why a spanking was something children got when their parents were glad to see them. First it was slap, slap, slap, and then hug, hug, hug and this continued for a long time.
Turns out Carl didn't have a good idea about the Mohawk and now that I have thought about it I don't believe he ever had a good idea all his life, but for one day I did get to be an Indian and I don’t think many people have experienced that.
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Synopsis
For the first time that I can remember Carl had a great idea because he suggested that we cut our hair like the Mohawk Indians!
A Word from the Writer
One carefree summer vacation day.
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