I’ve been a bit all-over-the-shop with blogging lately – heaps of posts one week then big stretches of nothing. A meme here, a reading challenge there. So when you’re on a good thing (randomness), stick to it. I’m joining in Kerri Sackville’s #MyFirst challenge this week, simply because when I saw the topic I knew EXACTLY what I would write about.
My First Act of Rebellion
So I’m six years old, lying in bed one night reading Milly Molly Mandy by Joyce Lankester Brisley. I’m loving it – the tea parties, errands that Milly Molly Mandy has to run, her visits with Little Friend Susan – when I hear my mum walking up the hall to tell me it’s time to turn my light off. Fuck that, I thought (actually, I really doubt I thought ‘fuck that’ but it would have been something similar, like ‘Drat!’). So I grabbed my torch, dutifully turned off my reading lamp, waited for mum to retreat and then kept reading under the covers. Chapters and chapters. To this day, I remember the JOY and the distinct feeling that I was breaking a whole bunch of rules.
I would like to report that that early act of rebellion was the beginning of something more major. But I think when Milly Molly Mandy is included in your list of rebellious moments, well, you probably know how this story ends…
I did the same thing as a kid! I had I night light in my room waaaaay longer than necessary for the sole purpose of sneaking in some extra reading time after I was supposed to be asleep!
LOL. That’s brilliant. I remember reading Puberty Blues under the covers, terrified my mum would come in and catch me. No idea what I was worried about – I can’t imagine she would have banned it – but it seemed very illicit to me!
I was the same with Flowers in the Attic – read at lunch time at school, all of my friends sharing one copy.
My mum eventually caught me out on my Milly Molly Mandy gig. She didn’t get cross. When I asked her about it years and years later she said “How can you get angry about a kid wanting to read?” So true.
I don’t think anyone ever cared what I did when I was little, but I used to do this too. Reading was my escape.
That’s made me a bit sad. Thank goodness for books.