Monday, March 3, 2008

Ici Tells of Her Brothers' Soaped Bottom Sled Rides

...the tub overflowed, so they decided to play "taxicab". They stripped and soaped their bottom, and proceeded gliding on the flooded floor...

Shortly after my birth, my father was transferred to Budapest. He had a lot of trouble to find an apartment large enough for us. There was a serious shortage of living quarters in Budapest, since the city was full of "repatriates" (people who were similarly expelled from other former Hungarian territories now belonging to Romania, Czechoslovakia, or Serbia.

The apartment had four large rooms: a very spacious "children room" where the boys slept and which also served as a dining room; a parlor; a study for my father; and a bedroom for the parents, where the two little girls had also their cribs. There was also a large kitchen and a small toilet, which my parents enlarged with a part of the entrance hall thus creating an "L" shaped bath with a tub in one end.

In this bathroom I had my best adventure as a toddler. My parents had to go somewhere, leaving me in my brothers’ care. They decided to take a bath and bathe me also. The tub overflowed, so they decided to play "taxicab". They stripped and soaped their bottom, and proceeded gliding on the flooded floor, taking me as a passenger in their lap. I loved it. They loved it. But my mother didn’t. She made them clean everything up and get dressed.

I was a real "enfant terrible". I learned to talk very early and enjoyed telling stories, reporting to my father the daily news, adding on colorful details. It was mostly about the horrible deeds of the four boys. My father believed every word, because "such a little child would not tell a lie", and did not listen to my brothers' protest, and gave them a sound spanking. Needless to say, I was not too popular with them.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

kitty;

I remember Mama tell me of this special sled ride doen the hall. Uncle Frank also rmembered that story and he told me that he and his brothers surely receive one heck of a Spanking for it.

Anonymous said...

I guess she would spank them! Especially in that day and in the old country. I can't imagine coming home to my four boys and a mess like that!

Susan said...

But, oh what fun it must have been to slide on soaped bottom sleds! I imagine the joy they experienced outweighed the spanking they received. ;)