From a Kid’s Perspective…by CHRISTIAN PARR
All right, let me just start off by saying that no one was hurt in all the craziness and awesomeness of the events that I am about to describe, to all of you now informed and suddenly concerned parents.
My birthday was last week, and there may be such thing as a “sweet sixteen,” but my Awesome Fifteenth was the best birthday ever!
We began the festivities when my friends started showing up, at around three-ish.
It began innocently enough, with all of us just standing around talking, you know, the way most parties start. This quickly changed, however, when Damon said something to Parker which Parker didn’t appreciate, and all the rest of us, not having any idea what he had said, took sides quickly, just for the fun of it.
This quickly transformed into a war game, which turned into tag, which ended with Sean, Damon, Parker, and Taylor hiding in a tent while I, Austin, and Sawyer, being called by dad, hopped into the back of a trailer hooked to the jeep, to go get firewood… or at least we thought.
What we didn’t realize was that dad was going to take us on a mud bogging, turf tearing, doughnut spinning, through the field, down the dangerous woods trail, screaming-while-going-down-one-side-of-the-ravine-and-screaming-louder-while-going-up-the-other-side, in a trailer behind a jeep ride. Then it got dark, and we did it again.
You would think that by now we party-goers would be completely exhausted, but nooooooooo…we weren’t done yet; we weren’t even started, really.
It was about eight thirty, we were all getting finished with a wonderful dinner of jambalaya, and now that we were full, we were STARVING!!!!! I know what you’re thinking, WHAT?!?!, what does he mean? What I mean is that we were starving for the slick floors, rock music, and awesome hang-out time that only midnight bowling can provide.
We drove to the bowling lanes in Jackson, played for three hours, had a great time, and learned several things about each other; Joshua, for example, can stretch four dollars like it’s a hundred, Taylor could grow up to be a professional bowler, and most of us cannot dance to save our lives!
All right, now they’re gonna call it a night, right? WRONG!!! It was one o’clock, and we were ready for some manhunt, a game where one team hides and the other team tries to find them, chase them down, tag them, and bring them back to jail where they have to guard them lest the hiding team’s other members try a rescue attempt, all in 10 minutes.
Needless to say, this was just as fun as bowling, if not more so, with my team totally dominating, no offense, dad, you just STINK!
We played until two-thirty, and everyone had a great time, I went splinter-cell, Sawyer became a pile of leaves, and David became the blue-hooded streak of light, all while Joshua and Lindsey are bouncing off barbed-wire fences and dad is hiding under the van, (which by the way, is the most obvious place to hide).
By the time we were done, it was time for bed, “NOW! No you may not talk, hurry up in the bathroom, and don’t wake up the girls!” These were the instructions given to us by my sore, exhausted, and slightly irritable dad.
The guys, except Dad, were herded into the coldest, emptiest room in the house, with nothing but a few blankets and pillows between us, and my dad’s thinly veiled threats still ringing in our ears.
The next morning, we all got up, made as much noise as we couldn’t, and sat down to a massive breakfast of bacon, eggs, biscuits, and grits.
We were then released outside to play for 30 minutes; I showed my friends an old barn hidden in the back of a field, and we, being adolescent young men, began converting it into an impenetrable fortress, and before we knew it, an hour had gone by and I was late for my own party!
Five minutes and twenty-thousand apologies and excuses later, we all sat down for presents and cake. The presents were awesome (thanks, everybody!), and the cake was just as cool.
My mom had baked an amazing German chocolate cake, and my dad did it decorative justice by turning it into a castle, with cupcake towers, Hershey bar foundations, a graham cracker drawbridge, and a marshmallow moat and ramparts. Needless to say, everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
Christian, oldest of six