conspirators

  When I was maybe eight years old or so I was allowed to go to the corner store. I was often accompanied by my sister. She was two years older than me and was charged with watching me. Mom may have thought that my sister was doing just that but in reality, we were more like co-conspirators. My sister Millie did not have a very assertive personality, that wasn't her strong point, her strong point was being empathic, that and she was loyal to a fault. We had many adventures together until we reached our mid-teens when hanging out together wasn't cool anymore. We thought we were growing up, but little did we know how much we would come to miss hanging out with one another later in life. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. There's a reason for that and it's usually because it has been fertilized. We all know what makes a great fertilizer! 

  This morning, I was thinking about the great coca-cola heist my sister and I perpetrated. We had been sent to that corner store to get a loaf of bread or whatever, could have been cigarettes or beer for Dad as well, I don't remember the original mission. Whatever it was we took our usual route to get there. We lived on a dirt road and so took that down to the chip and tar road that was the main throughfare. Crossing that we took a footpath through a small, wooded area. This little plot of land was a game sanctuary. We were told it had been donated to the town for that purpose and no one could ever build or develop that land. It remains there to this day although the last time I saw it was surrounded by a fence. No fence there in the 1960's! 

 Taking that short cut through the woods brought us out on the road the store was on. We had to pass the house of our aunt to get there, and we often stopped to see if she needed anything from the store. The fact that she almost always gave us some money for candy had nothing to do with those visits. It was part of the routine. Going past her house the store was the next stop. Mary owned this store and was a family friend. She sometimes shared stories about my father with us. As kids we got a big kick out of that. We learned some things about the secret lives of parents. We were very comfortable around that store. We knew where Joe, that was Mary's husband was likely to be, and where Mary herself was. With that knowledge we put our plan into action.

  We arrived at the store and the coca-cola truck was parked right out front. The side door was open, and we could see those racks filled with six packs of coca-cola. There they were, just staring back at us. The delivery man was inside talking to Mary. He wouldn't be returning soon, Mary liked to talk to everyone. It was our chance. With my sister as my lookout, I snatched a six pack off that truck and headed home. Once I was safely away, out of sight, my sister caught up. She had gone in the store and purchased whatever it was we had been sent to get. As we reached that little path through the woods we talked. We couldn't take this soda home, mom knew we didn't have any money for that, and our aunt wouldn't have given us that much money! We did have an entire six pack! We decided the only thing to do was to drink it.

  So, we sat in those woods and using my belt buckle opened those cokes. My older brother had taught me that trick and I was feeling pretty clever and like a bit of bad ass. The soda was hot, something we hadn't considered before the heist. We did drink it though, one after the other. We had to hurry because we didn't want to be gone too long and raise suspicion. Mom might call her sister and find out we weren't there. I don't recall if we actually managed to drink them all, but I do remember not feeling so good. My sister wasn't feeling all that great either. When we got home, we were questioned. We had been gone longer than expected. We had no choice but to lie and say we stopped at Aunt Bets' house. Now that sick feeling was even worse. We told mom we were going out to play and went to our tree fort. There we sat feelings a bit sick to our stomachs. 

 No one ever knew about that little escapade. We kept our secret. It wasn't the only heist we perpetrated together. There is the 5&10 cent store as well. But that is another story. Yes, we were quite the desperados, a regular crime syndicate. No one ever knew. We retired from the crime business long about 1965 or so. Occasionally over the years when I had some private time with my sister, we would discuss those days. We had a secret to share. Two heists and we were never discovered. No one would have believed that about my sister anyway. Now, I didn't enjoy that immunity, I was the one really taking the risk. Fortunately, we were never questioned, never came under suspicion.