About the alarm clock on the stairs

Through my teen years one of my best friends was ………..my brother, Rodney.   We were just two years apart and enjoyed each other’s company immensely.  You might think that was because we were alike. Nope, for the most part we were very different. I made good grades in school, Rodney not so much.  I was eager to please and anxious to fit into the right crowd, not Rodney.  I loved to work and always had a part time job; Rodney was not very interested in working.

One thing we had in common was food.  Everyone else in our family went to bed early; we stayed up and had night time feasts.  One of our favourite snacks was sardine sandwiches.  Made on Mother’s wonderful fresh homemade bread with sardines, onions soaked in vinegar and mustard they were a treat.  If we did not have sardines, the sandwiches consisted of the onions and mustard.  The latter sandwich took more milk to wash it down.

Then Rodney snared rabbits.  He would bring in the dressed hind quarters and I would fry them up in the electric frying pan.  Yum oh, they tasted like chicken.  And it was not all kitchen lunches, by the time we were in high school we went out and about with our gang.  Several of our neighbourhood chums had cars and we gathered together, usually in the church yard, talked and solved the problems of the world. In summer we played pick up soft ball, in winter we skated. If we had money we got treats at the corner store.  If we really had money we went to Hartland to the movies.

We had a curfew, eleven pm.  For some reason our Mother felt that if we were not home by eleven some calamity would befall us.  I tried to negotiate for a more adult hour, say midnight, but Mother would not be budged.  Our father, Talmage Vail, was a sport affectionate.   Most evenings saw him watching one game while listening to two different games on two different radios.  He could not be burdened with monitoring our curfew.  Mother had four more children after Rodney and I, so she was always exhausted and wanted to be in bed soon after dark.

That is how the alarm clock on the stairs came to be.  Mother set the clock for eleven, we had to be home to turn it off or she would be awakened by the alarm and we would be in trouble.  The first few nights we were on time, no problem.  Then there was an evening when I was involved in a heavy discussion with my then boyfriend.  I suggested Rodney hurry on home and turn off the clock.  It was then we decided that it did not take two people to unarm an alarm. 

 Rodney and I  worked as a tag team for a while, summer arrived. We decided it did not take either of us to beat the clock.  For a fee David ,our next brother, would willingly tend the clock.  I am not sure how long we paid David those precious quarters. At some point Dad came tearing down the stairs, probably in search of a better reception site, and the clock was broken.

And No one asked me about the alarm clock on the stairs.