One day late in the summer, our mom left us in charge of a large pot of fresh green beans cooking while she ran a short errand in town. Somewhere along the line, watching Laverne and Shirley wasn’t enough distraction, and a fight broke out. Janie, never one to fully express her anger in a constructive manner, reached into the simmering pot, and threw a whole green bean atop Leslie’s tank-topped shoulder. Leslie writhed in pain, then decided to attempt to restore sanity to the situation. Leslie decided to make lunch. She selected a small stainless steel saucepan, Oodles of Noodles, and some tongs. She filled the pan with water, brought it to a rolling boil, and plunged the metal tongs into the water. She stirred them and stirred them, then just before placing the noodles in the water, she called Janie to lunch. It was then that Leslie clamped the hot tongs onto Janie’s fleshy ear, causing her to regret her earlier decision to brand Leslie with a hot bean.
Our mother did not know about this for years, and we wince to think of our own children doing such horrible things.
