Curfew

Been on a date?  Ever had a curfew?  Know what humiliation is?  Now come on, how many of you would have rather cut off your hands than been late getting home?

The idea of curfew to most teenagers is foreign.  Why do we have to be home at a certain time?  No one I know has a curfew.  Bet you did not have a curfew when you were young.   How many of these did you hear from your kids when they were growing up?  How many times did you use one or all of them when you were growing up?  How many of you had dad's who set curfew and meant it?

In our house, curfew was 30 minutes after whatever you were going to.  If you went to a dance or movie and it ended at 11:00 then you had to be home and in the house by 11:30.  Now when I say in the house by 11:30, that did not mean around 11:30 or close to 11:30, it meant 11:30 and not one second later.  Your worst fear was to show up seconds after the clock had changed.  It was as bad as if you were an hour late.  In our house late was late. 

I was brought up to respect others.  Being late showed disrespect and it was not tolerated.  Now don't get me wrong, I did not come from a house where you feared for your life, just your freedom (being grounded when a teenager was worst thing you could have done to you).   We were told from day one that time is valuable.   Time being "valuable", I understand now, meant "Don't make me lose sleep because you can't get your sorry ass home on time or your going to pay for it".   The punishment for being late in our house was grounding.  Not for a day or two, but for a minimum of a week.  This meant extra chores also.  Sometimes, depending on how late I was, could mean up to a month of sitting at home when ALL my friends were out doing things.  Funny, you don't ever believe that anyone else gets grounded or punished for the same things you did.

Now there was one thing that my dad did, that I bet not many of you can claim yours did. 

Sitting out in the car with your boyfriend/date did not count as being home on time.  Like I said earlier curfew meant "IN THE HOUSE", not sitting in a car in front of the house.   The porch light was my dad's weapon of choice.  Most father's would have just opened the door and called you in, NOT MINE!!!  He would stand in the window of the front door and flick the porch light on and off over and over until you were so humiliated that you gave up and came in.   The humiliation was due to the fact that all the neighbours would come out on their front porches to see what was going on.  I would try and slink into the house without being seen, but was never successful.   All that was said as you slinked in was "I told you to be home at _____.

Now I remember one incident that happened one night, that still makes me cringe and wonder.  It was winter.  My boyfriend had picked me up in his VW bug and we had gone to get his friends.  We had a good time driving around town just cruising.  For some ungodly reason he decided to take a run up to the golf course.  No one was there and the parking lot being empty, it seemed like a good place to burn donuts in the snow.  Well at the time it seemed like a good idea.  Fun and all.  Then came the clunk, bang, bang and the car started to rock.  We had hit a road tye that they use to stop cars from driving up on the grass.  OOPS now what do we do.  Everyone piled out and started to rock the bug to no avail.  Jack it up?  Lift it?  None of these were options. 

Time was ticking.  I was getting nervous.  Curfew was now.   Since there was no chance that anyone was going to come anytime soon, and we had no cell phones back then, I began to walk down the road to a friend of my parents.  She answered the door shaking her head.  "Can I use your phone?", I said.  I called my dad and told him what happened.   I waited for the lecture.  None came.  He told me to stay there.  He showed up to pick me up and we drove to the golf course parking lot.  He got out.  Not sure what he told them, but very shortly after he got back in the car and we left.  I never asked (him or my boyfriend) what he said, and neither of them offered.    He was happy that I was safe and had the where with all to call for help but as dad said curfew was curfew.

I was grounded for a month. 

Now some of you may think my parents were strict.  I guess in a way they were.  What dad said, was law.  They brought us up to respect others.  They brought us up to respect them.   They brought us up to respect ourselves.  They brought us up to respect time.  I giggle every time I see the porch light going on now, remembering a time when things were simple and your worst fear was making CURFEW.