Common Sense 2 and 3

Mom and Dad 1963

    There are 2 other incidences I can now remember that might be examples of my alleged lack of common sense, and they both involve the grill my Dad used for cookouts. We were still living on Heinrich Road – I was probably 6 or 7 years old. In the summer, on the weekends, sometimes relatives would come over. Dad would grill hamburgers or hotdogs, once in a while steaks, but I don't think he ever did chicken – the Folks were leery of grilled chicken.

     Well, at that house – Dad almost always had the grill just outside the back door – near a little patio entrance by the garage. There were some hedges that afforded privacy – and guests were either on the patio with Dad or in the kitchen with Mom. One afternoon Dad had started the grill – this would have been charcoal and lighter fluid – not the fancy gas grills of today – and he asked me to run into the house for some newspaper. The paper would have gotten the fire going a little faster. I, however, did not know how the paper would help the fire. I ran into the house and grabbed the entire Sunday edition of the Courier Express. But then I set it down again. The thought that ran through my head was that the whole paper would be overkill, and I did not want Dad to call me a “Smart Aleck” in front of everyone for bringing so much newspaper. So I ripped off a corner of one page – with the thought that he had said “some newspaper” and the corner of a page was “some,” and that was probably all he really wanted.

     Yeah, when Dad saw what I was handing him, he and everyone around laughed at me! He was convinced I should have known better.

The second incident took place one day when Dad had the grill in the front yard by the front door. This was very unusual. Thinking about it now, all I can figure is that there might have been a football game on the tv that day, and the television was in the living room and the front door was in the living room. None of the guests were gathered around the grill – it just sat there all by itself.

     At one point, I looked out the picture window at the grill, and I saw that the steaks were on fire! I did not want to interrupt Dad from whatever he was doing – because if the steaks on fire did not constitute an emergency, then I would be verbally reprimanded for interfering with the adult conversation. But if steaks on fire was indeed an emergency, then Dad should really be told.

     “Dad!” I called out weakly, so as not to sound too demanding, “I think maybe the fire is doing something!”

     Dad actually heeded my words, went to the front door, looked at the grill, looked at me, everyone else looked, and then everybody laughed at me. Steaks on fire was an emergency. But why had I not known that for sure?

 

13 20150113 Common Sense 2 and 3