My brothers and I were left to our own devices for the most part.
Home life was interesting to say the least. We were in school during the day and after school we came to our restaurant to work.
I was a waiter and busboy by eight or nine. I washed more dishes than you will see in your entire lifetime. I cut tripe and pork shoulders for the Mexican dishes my mother had learned to prepare when I was still a young child.
Even at work we had time to get into a little mischief.
We had a regular customer who liked his beer and came to our place regularly. He rode a pink Harley.
One day he asked us to watch it for him, out of the kindness of his heart. I suppose there was money involved, but I was the youngest and not privy to that conversation.
Somehow we came up with an idea on our own. It was not a good one, but it was an idea, none the less.
Between the three of us, we were able to move the motorcycle to a discreet location, out of view of the owner. When he finally came out of our bar to leave, he was more than upset that his ride was gone.
He was a smallish man dressed in black leathers with a weathered face and rough hands. He had been on the road with that motorcycle for years. I guess you might say that he was fond of it.
He looked like something half way between a human and an ape. He had short, thick limbs and was slightly bent over from all the years on the back of his pride and joy.
Anyway, he was very animated when he discovered that it was missing and I seem to recall that my father was brought into the conversation about where it might have gone.
The mystery was quickly solved to no ones satisfaction and we never saw him again. I suppose our father had a word or two with us about our little adventure, but he was a kind man and understood that our ages dictated our ability to understand what we had done.
He had done a few silly or stupid things in his own life I suppose, and we were his off spring after all.
I guess the moral of the story is that one shouldn’t give responsibilities to those too young to understand them.
Never give items that may be dangerous to children. The results are usually worse than expected. That includes most items by the way.