Thursday, September 03, 2015

TomBoy

I was a mean little girl. Ornery, and meaner than a snake. I was cute, too. Think Ellie Mae Clampett from The Beverly Hillbillies except I was chestnut-haired, not blonde. I loved critters and the outdoors and hated dresses and girly stuff like getting my hair combed or sitting demurely with my ankles crossed and being seen and not heard.

Did my share of beating up fellers, too, although I don't recall ever throwing one over my shoulder and bringing him home to Pa and asking "Can I keep him?" I did, however, break a few bones, I'm afraid. Last count for sure included one ankle, one sacrum, and a leg in multiple places. Not mine! Oh no, unfortunate playmates or classmates who incurred my wrath.

To my credit, minimal as it is, I was only incidentally responsible for the fractured leg. There was a boy in our neighborhood who had brittle bones (but we didn't know), and while playing football one day, my entire team piled on top of him as was our custom. He screamed in terrible pain and all the boys ran away. I went for help and heard later that his leg was broken in three places.

We didn't pile on after that. In fact, I wasn't even allowed to play football anymore because the neighborhood women got together and determined it was unseemly for a girl as "big" as I was to play contact sports with the boys. I had developed "bosoms."

So while my breasts ended my football playing days, they didn't end my interactions with football playing guys. But that's a story for another day. ~GH

2 comments:

Marie Fitzpatrick said...

:) nice character piece.

B. WHITTINGTON said...

Oh Ging, I was a tomboy too until about 12-13 when I discovered I really liked boys. I didn't much fight but I was considered mouthy, loud, and sometimes disorderly. Most fights were with my girlfriends. We found that any over the number two didn't work out. When we added that third or fourth girl all we did was fight. I had the same haircut as you, Dutchboy. WORe cotton dresses with sashes which came home yanked off every day, white anklets with brown tie up Buster Brown shoes because of their durability. Wish I'd know you way back then, we would have been buds. And you could have done the punching for me.