YAM #8 - Oh, Susan Greco, where, oh where, are you now?!
I was, perhaps, five years old. Susan, who lived about three houses up the block, must have been about 4 years old. We started walking down Maple Avenue together and, after about a block or two, she suggested that we get a hamburger and soda at the tiny diner that used to be on the corner of Shelby Street and Oak Avenue (this had to be around 1949 or so).

Well, I, being older and much wiser, replied "But Susan! We don't have any money!" Susan, being ever so much cleverer than I, came back with "But Douglas! We can always BUY some money!" (which, of course, made perfect sense to me, right?).

So, we ambled the few remaining blocks and went to the restaurant, ordered our feast and sat eating to our fill, when the waitress came up to us and told us that we had to pay the 75 cents (or whatever a meal for two cost back then).

Oops! Uhhhh! Well, hmmmm .... (The waitress was already asking for our names and phone numbers ...). Gee! All these years, when I think of this, I can only guess how cute we must have looked with our innocent guilty faces and how that waitress must have really fought to keep from laughing.

Anyhow, when our parents came to get us and they had finished lecturing us, I just got on with Life and forgot about it - until the next day, when Susan was finally let out in the neighborhood with a note pinned to her coat that said "Susan is NOT allowed to play with Douglas!"

I've never forgotten that. I've never gotten over it. After all, it was HER idea, not mine!

I should have learned a very important lession that day (but, of course, I didn't!).