Story of the Week #8 Innocence of Children

For the next few weeks I will be writing random memories of what I remember of our life in Woods Cross. We lived in Woods Cross until I was 9 years old.

I never understood adults as a child and as an adult I don't understand them any better.

Adults teach children that there are some things that are bad for kids but as adults they must be ok. Kids are taught that smoking and drinking alcohol are bad but adults do it. Some movies are "Adult Movies" and are not for kids. Kids are taught to get along with other kids but adults complain about their friends and coworkers and bad mouth each other, Kids get in trouble for swearing but hear their parents spew profanity every time they get mad about something. I think we need to be more like we were taught as kids and less like the adults we sometimes become.

A I said adults are constantly instructing children right from wrong and smoking and drinking are not only wrong but evil and people who used them were in our minds committing evil acts, and therefore could not go to heaven. It was impressed upon our minds from my earliest memory that not only are these things bad for you but using them is a sin. I remember seeing people smoke and thinking that they were bad people because they were sinning. I don't ever remember seeing anyone drink.

A block from our house there lived an old lady that had a Boston Terrier. We were always afraid of this old lady because we only saw her occasionally, when we did she was usually smoking, she never came to church which living is a small Utah town is where you met most people that were not your next door neighbor. She always seemed mad because when she talked it was always loud and in a raspy voice.

I remember walking home from kindergarten one day, I don't remember anyone walking with me and the old lady called to me from her door and asked me to do her a favor. I walked over and she handed me a piece of paper and a dollar and asked me if I would take the dollar to the Irve's, the little town store across the street and buy her what she had listed on the paper. Then she handed me a dime and said this is for you to buy some candy.

I took the money and the note over to the store and handed it to Terry, Irve's son who ran the store with him. Terry reached behind him on the self and grabbed a pack of cigarettes and gave them to me. I almost died, I had never touched a cigarette, we had a few neighbors that smoked but none in the presence of kids. I was shocked and embarrassed and exclaimed to Terry "Oh these are not for me". He said he knew and that she always asks kids walking by her house to come over to the store and buy her cigarettes. I took them and walked back across the street and handed them to her, very glad to be rid of them. I was a little confused, even though she smoked and we were a little scared of her, she was nice to me, even though she smoked she wasn't a bad person. She never asked me to go to the store again for her but I do remember walking by her house no longer afraid of her and petting her little Boston terrier when ever they were out and saying hi to her from then on.

I don't remember what I did with the dime.