Hooties and Such

When I was a kid, I spent many many many nights at my memaw's house. That woman was awesome. I'm sure most grandmothers would mostly do anything for their granddaughters but really, I have to say that I had it better than anyone. She would do Any-Thing.

With that greatness, came an uncanny ability to make us behave. Well, sort of. Not that her parenting skills were so awesome, but that she just knew what would make us stop and listen.

Like if I got too whiny, she'd tell me stories. She had good stories. They were the kind of stories that kids shut up and listen too. Me, I haven't quite mastered the art of this storytelling, but I'm telling you, her stories scared me poo-less.

When my whining started, she'd grab me close and say, "Ssshhh! The hooties are looking at you! You gotta be quiet or they won't go away. See em out there? Look, they're peering in the window. They don't like kids that whine and cry and don't listen. If you want them to go away, you gotta be quiet and good."

And I'd stop. I'd also peer real hard out the window in the hopes of catching a glimpse of the dreaded hooties. I was terrified.

Let me tell you more about the hooties. They have glowing eyes. Some are yellow, some are blue, some are red. But they are shapeless, since we can't see them in the dark, we can only see their eyes. And they live along the river banks. Although at nighttime, they do wander around town, their home is by the river. So I'd get real quiet and try real hard to see when we'd cross the river in the car at night. Can't have the hooties looking at me!

I passed on a great tradition tonight. At dinner time, I told my kiddies about the hooties. They didn't want to go to bed, but after looking out the window and seeing the reflection of the living room lights the yellow glow outside, they were convinced and went right off to bed. No one whined, except Jake wanted to sleep on the couch. We settled on leaving the bedroom door open.

The beauty of the hooties is they don't do anything. They just watch and look. Oh, and they make kiddies behave, apparently. I'm such a loving mom, I am truly amused tonight! Really! My almost ten year old is believing in Hooties!!!

Maybe another day, I'll tell you about the oil-well monster that lived on my aunt's property. He knocked on my window one night when we were keeping him awake with our giggling. And we were asleep in three minutes flat after that one!! heeheehee

Disclaimer: For those of you who are so bummed by a mother having the audacity to scare her children, it was all in good fun. Kind of like letting the kiddies watch Poltergeist last Halloween, which I promise you was edited on TBS and watched with their father. And they L.O.V.E.D. it!!