Something Wonderful??

I grew up in a fairly crazy, cuckoo environment.  Due to many several circumstances I won't go into here (this post, anyway), life was pretty upside down for my sister and me. Due to family instability, I was forced to be an adult in my early teens, which probably explains why I'm such an idiot now.  Although we lived in a very nice middle class house, in a very nice middle class neighborhood, had very nice middle class neighbors and friends, and while we appeared to be a normal middle class family, WE WERE NUTS!!!!!!  At least by most standards.  We had some very bizarre house rules.   Such as: One must never, never ever leave an iron turned on. (By the way, an iron is something one uses to get the wrinkles out of clothing and yes, it's hot and yes it will burn the hell out of your hand.)  Therefore, if you were ironing (the ONLY household chore I was allowed to do, and even then, I was only allowed to iron handkerchiefs and my dad's undershorts) and had to get a drink of water or re-fill the sprinkler or take a bathroom break, the iron had to be turned off, then turned back on when you returned to the chore.  Heaven only knows what would have happened had you left the iron frying on the ironing board.  Another rule was if we left the house, we had to place all the trashcans in the bathtub.  Duh.... another fire hazard.   No objects of life were allowed in the bedrooms - nothing on the dressers or chests other than a lamp.  No shoes outside the closet doors.  No clothing allowed outside the drawers or closets.  The house stayed spic and span all day, every day.  Our house could have been featured in any store furniture department.  If the day happened to be pretty (and pretty meant above 40 degrees with no driving rain or snow) you played outside.  And when you played outside, you did NOT come back inside all day except the days you couldn't eat lunch outside.  We drank from GOD FORBID the water hose!!  In the summertime, we stayed at the pool all day, swimming.   The upside of this is we rode our bikes all over the place, became very good swimmers and had loads of fun, not realizing we lived in a nuthouse.  You don't realize that your family is nuts when you're 8 years old.  Well, most of us don't.  The huzbin said he knew he was living in a nuthouse when he was 8 years old, but that's another story for another time.  And how comical is it that two screwy people got together??  I mean, really!  That never happens hardy har har....  I have many, many memories about my childhood and not all of them are purty.  And now I've laid a foundation for you, so when you hear future stories, don't say I didn't warn you.