When I was 9, my parents made me take this class that was about all sorts of things, like a training manual for life, but the homework assignments over the course of the weekend were completely outrageous. I remember the last HW task was to startle a total stranger, and it had to be an adult, not another kid. I think the point was for us kids to get that parents were just people too… Anyway, so my parents and I had just finished breakfast at Denny’s, and were walking out to the car, when it dawned on me that I hadn’t done my assignment. Lucky for me, there was a woman waddling across the parking lot, ready to gorge herself with ketchup slathered homefries and all of that. I squatted in between two cars, as my parents watched from across the lot, and as the poor 55-ish year old woman teetered down the sidewalk toward me, I remember clearly leaping up and screaming “BOOO-YAH!!!” And she screamed bloody friggin murder, like I had never heard an adult scream before.
I’ve thought about that a lot, and have always wanted to do something as audacious. My excuse for not doing so is that I live in Baltimore now, and I’d probably get capped.
Or I could just do it… we could all just do it, you know?
