Elsi

I don’t see any BookCrossing Zones in the Dallas or Denton area, so obviously we need one.

13 June 1998, was the day on which I paid off my bet with my son by having my hair sprayed bright blue. I was required to appear in public with this blue hair, so I went to the annual Eat Me Texas Style Barbecue, attended by about 85 people; most of them folks that I work with.

How did the Blue Hair bet come about? In the summer of 1997, I challenged my 15-year old son, P, to make an A or B in all his core classes (Math, History, English, and Science) and to pass all other courses. P, though a bright kid, had just completed his sophomore year in high school and was an indifferent student at best. I tendered this challenge in the hopes of motivating him to apply himself to his course work. P accepted, and the payoff agreed upon was that P would be allowed to select the color of his mother’s hair.

At the end of each grading period, P would gloat about how he was winning the bet. He’d then start debating which color he was going to pick: orange, purple, green, striped . . .

When his junior year was over, P had held up his end of the bet. Not only had he made A and B grades in all his core classes, he made only one C for the entire year, in Spanish. So, I had to pay up and get my hair dyed blue.