The first home I remember as a child was a duplex in a lower income neighborhood. I loved everything about it. I rode my bicycle up and down the residential streets, I played with kids across the streets and down the field. There were two parks and my elementary school was a 10 minute bus ride away.
As a child, I loved playing hide and seek. I’d sometimes play with my parents without their consent, hiding when they needed me. One day I did this with my mother at our local convenience store. We had a store called White Hen, it was a local chain. My mother brought me there to buy milk or bread. I decided to hang around the aisles, just out of sight. Apparently at this time this was such a common occurrence, me playing hide and seek with my mother, that she left the store without hesitation, presumably thinking I was hiding in the car.
When I had looked around the corner of the aisle, my mother was long gone. Her car was pulling out of the driveway and she was heading home. I couldn’t believe it. What was I going to do?
I ran up to the counter and told the clerk that my mom had left me behind. He looked confused. He asked me if I could call home. He asked my what my number was.
I must have been six years old. I had no idea what my phone number was. I closed my eyes and tried to think of something. I used to wait outside my father’s basement office. He made himself a home office and had an answering machine. I would hear the machine play over and over. It was his voice, reading out our phone number.
I slowly recited the numbers from my memory to the clerk. He dialed the numbers and reached someone on the other line. “Hello, yes? Did you leave your son at White Hen?” My mother was in horror. She quickly returned, it was only a five minute drive. She scolded me on the way home, telling me she thought I was hiding in the trunk. By the time we made it home, her grief had subsided and she realized her son had called home for the first time. “How did you know?” she asked. I told her about our answering machine. She was still a bit upset, but she showed me smile and we went inside.
Leadership, Design, Writing 