At some point growing up, our parents decided that Casey, Tim and I could stay home by ourselves. Three boys in small town Iowa left home alone to enjoy there summer. This memory is not about the crazy adventures we experienced, those will come later, rather this is about the start of each of those days.
We would wake up, most of the time before Dad and Mom would leave the house. If we were lucky we would catch Dad as he was finishing up that days To Do List.
My Dad has always been a list guy. A trait that I picked up on as well. He has them for work, vacation etc. but the list that I am talking about is the one he would create everyday during the summer for us boys to accomplish. A Kiddo To Do List.
The list always started with a letter, and ended with the list. Dishes, Clean Up our Rooms, Dust, bathrooms, the Yard, etc. etc. and they almost always said…Get done before WE(Mom and Dad) get home.
Remember those adventures I talked about above…well those adventures would take all day. All day long. They had to, because how else could you explain that the list always got finished right as Mom or Dad was pulling into the driveway. I can remember on some occasions sitting in the living room and seeing their vehicles come down the hill, yelling to my brothers and racing to get the dishes done in 15 seconds…..LOL, OMG….so funny to think about now.
Lists led to compromise, to trades of chores, to arguments, to who did what, who did it when, who did the most(Casey was the king of the list)…..
Looking back…oh, do be a fly on the wall to hear those three young boys debating the list….We probably spent more time figuring the list out, then we ever did actually doing the list itself….but damn were those summers fun....
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