Double Dog Dare You

I’m fixing to double-dog-dare you.

That’s what we used to say to get someone to do something they would never do otherwise. If somebody double-dog-dared you, why then you had to do it, or be branded a coward and be the target of finger pointing and snickering.

A person could pass up a regular dare and keep their dignity, but not so if it was a double-dog one. Once that old double-dog one had been laid on you, you either had to take the dare or your family would have to leave the county from the shame of not doing it.

Nobody would ever put a double-dog-dare on one of their brothers, cousins or a friend, but wouldn’t hesitate to do it to someone they didn’t like or held a grudge against. Double-dog-dares kind of replaced guns in feuds between families, like football games replaced wars between people.

I was only about nine years old when I got my first one. It was on a hot, sultry Saturday afternoon when a lot of us had gathered at the Cyprus Hole on the Satifla Creek to cool ourselves off in its shady currents. Everyone there was not family or a friend.

I had drifted up to the high bank where the older boys would swing from a rope and drop from a great distance into the deepest part of the creek. I was staring at the rope as it hung limp and intimidating when I heard a voice say the dreaded words, “I double-dog-dare you to swing off that rope.”

I knew the voice. It was my nemesis, Elroy Carter. We weren’t any kin and we had scuffled before. He was bigger, but I was faster and usually got the best of him. Today he had caught me off guard and laid a double-dog one on me.

Glancing around for help, I saw there was none. Other boys, my age and older, had heard the challenge and I could heard the murmur moving through the crowd as they began to gather around to see the outcome.

I mentally kicked myself for letting it happen, but there it all was, the double-dog-dare, the rope, some of my kin folks whom I dared not shame, and the deep water in the middle of the creek.

A dog paddle was the limit of my swimming skills at the time, and I didn’t relish the idea of disappearing beneath the dark water when I let go of the rope. I bit my lip to quell my fear as I grasped the rope. And when I began to run with the rope toward the bank I glanced toward Elroy.

When he realized I was really going to do it, I saw the fear, along with regret, reflected in his eyes just before I went airborne.

You see, if you have the courage to take a double-dog-dare and succeed, you are entitled to lay it back on the one who dared you.

When I proudly emerged dripping from the creek, Elroy was nowhere to be found. I figured he had gone to gather his family and they were fixing to depart the county.