Lessons
Fun Throwing Eggs at the Chickens
We were not even punished. It was far worse!
I have not yet forgotten even after 65 years!!!
The commotion
One day, when my cousins, my brothers and I were visiting my grandparents, we went into the chicken house and started throwing eggs at the chickens. It was great fun! Those chickens squawked and jumped every which way.
Our parents finally came to see what the commotion was about. After a bit of yelling at us, we all went inside to wait for the upcoming punishment.
Worse than punishment
After the consultation with the other parents, my dad said they weren’t going to punish us. Then he said that my grandmother sold those eggs so they could buy food and gasoline. So, we had to pay for the eggs out of our allowances for the next month.
For me, that meant no comic books for an entire month! My allowance would buy 5 comic books. I don’t know how it impacted everybody else.
Years later, my grandmother said she felt bad for us and kind of embarrassed every time she received a letter in the mail with 2 quarters and a note of apology.
Lesson Learned
We never threw eggs at the chickens again.
I learned similar lessons from a couple of other unrelated dumb events in my younger years. I never shared the details with anybody and never will. However, I rarely make the same mistake twice and haven’t made any similar mistakes later in life. I hope I never will, but it’s never too late to learn.
What happened with the chickens
Years later, I discovered that after a couple years of producing eggs, the “spent” hens were sent to the pot pie factory.
Inflation — a side note
This occurred in the mid-50s. My allowance, 50 cents, would buy 5 comic books (no sales tax at that time). I still vividly remember when the price went from ten to twelve cents! I could buy only 4 comics and my allowance did not go up.
Not much different from today, except for the size of the numbers.