Friday, December 16, 2011

From the Halls of Montezuma

And you could add to that - - The Embarrassed

I'm not sure why I thought of this . . . but I had a childhood memory come to my mind just now and it made me laugh out loud.   It involves my second oldest sister . . . and the United States Marine Corps.

I have three sisters - two older, one younger.  My second oldest sister (I'll call her Mahala), unlike me, was very social, very cute and very popular in high school, which really has nothing to do with this story but may help you to better visualize as you read.   We grew up in Southern California in a house right next to the Santa Ana Freeway (5).   It was separated from our backyard by a brick wall, and we were constantly hearing the swish swish swish of the cars driving by - and the occasional crash! bang! crunch!   This also has nothing to do with the story.    To the south of us were two Marine Corps bases - El Toro and Camp Pendleton, which will come into play later.

Mahala used to like to watch Hawaii Five-0, and she would stand on the table and pretend she was surfing as they played the theme song.   She was funny/crazy.  Still is.  In a good way.   Mahala also used to like to watch the Johnny Carson show, which came on at 11 p.m.  She would lay on the couch in the living room, watching Johnny and Ed for a few minutes and then usually fall asleep.   In front of the couch was a coffee table (the Five-0 dancing table).

In my bedroom was a rather large window (almost as large as a sliding glass door, but not really).    And it faced the driveway, which you could see from the street.   And now that I think about it, how creepy is that?   People could probably look in my room anytime they wanted.   Eewwww.    Anyway, I was sleeping soundly and all of a sudden I was awakened by my sister running into my room screaming!    And as I sat up in bed, I saw a figure running past my bedroom window toward the street.   Holy cow!!!   Needless to say, I was scared . . . and Mahala was even more scared.  I'm sure we got our parents, but I can't really remember.

This is what happened.   Mahala fell asleep on the couch in her usual fashion.   The TV was on, the front door was locked.   Mahala was changing positions and her arm flopped over onto the floor.   Or, what would have been the floor if there wasn't a man asleep in between the couch and the coffee table to break the fall of her arm!!!   She felt the man, immediately jumped up (I'm sure her eyes were bulging and her face white) and came running into my bedroom.  (I don't know why she didn't run into my parents' bedroom).  We heard the front door slam.  The figure I saw running outside my bedroom window - - of course, the sleeping man.  Although he was wide awake now and he was bookin!     

What we found out the next morning . . . the front door obviously was not locked.   Okay.  Note to self - - double, triple check all the doors before you go to bed.   The sleeping man on the floor?   Actually a sleeping 21 year old Marine who drunkenly entered the wrong home.   He was stationed at one of the Marine bases and was visiting a friend who actually lived down the street from us.   Said Marine had been out drinking and I guess all the houses look the same when you're drunk.  He thought he picked the right house.  Wrong.   When my sister's hand came down on him, it SCARED HIM TO DEATH!!!   He went running out of our house and apparently found the right house this time (nothing like a good scare to sober you up!).   He was way more scared than my sister, and very embarrassed and apologetic in the morning.   We never saw him again!

Moral of the story? - - I'm not sure.   Lock your doors at night.   Don't get drunk.  Sleep in your own bed.  

But thinking about it again this morning just made me shake my head and laugh.  

13 comments:

  1. It shows how innocent we all were back in the day.

    He must have been really drunk to end up on the floor, between the couch and table, and in the wrong house. Can you imagine if he had been just sober enough to try and lay down on the couch?

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  2. Your description of the house.....totally brought back memories of our childhood, but it was a weird house, Judy. How scary for your sister and the marine.

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  3. the good thing about this is, that years later it makes a blog posting which is very entertaining to read ..

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  4. About ten years ago, the neighbors across the street from where I lived then got up around 7 and began to go about their morning routine when they realized there was a total stranger passed out (snoring AND drooling) in the recliner in their living room. Same situation--drunk man who found his way "home" to the wrong home.

    Re: locked doors. I delivered flowers for almost ten years all over our rural county and I can tell you that the majority of doors in our area are NOT locked on any kind of regular basis even when everyone's out for the day. If there were no pets and no one home, we would stick the flowers inside to protect them from weather, etc. It was a very rare to find a locked front door.

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  5. Masked Mom - that is the way we should all be able to live - no locked doors. I know some places are still like that - even our town. BUT, we still lock our doors cuz you never know when some strange harmless wayward drunkard will find his way in!

    anni - we definitely laugh about it now - and even did the day after!

    collie - i have lots more memories - - what about those net candy-filled stockings that grandma used to hang for us?!

    and Tammy - you made me laugh out loud thinking about our poor little drunk Marine actually trying to lay down on the couch! That could have been a whole other story!!

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  6. Hil.Air.E.Us. Your descriptions of your house were awesome.
    (Um, I have three sisters, one older, two younger. We really should start making a list.)

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  7. Jewels - the similarities are piling up :).

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  8. Great story. So did he come back to apologize the next day, or did someone from your house chase him down?

    When I was about 14, I was sleeping on the sofa of an aunt I barely knew. In the middle of the night, my 30-something cousin (whom I'd NEVER met) came home and flopped down on top of me. Our mutual screams woke everyone in the house. Does it make better or worse that he was related to me?

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  9. Hello, great pleasure to go through your beautiful space, I wanted to greet you this holiday season,
    Happy Holidays!
    a hug.

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  10. Paranormalist - I just startled my dog by laughing out loud! kissing cousins?! Haha

    Ricardo - thanks for visiting! Hope you come back! Merry Christmas to you!

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  11. OMG, HILARIOUS! I'd have freaked out. I too was wondering if he came back and apologized and if that's how you figured out who he was?

    Everyone else's stories here are freaking me out too. There's far too much of this sort of thing going around!

    * And the net stockings? Oh yes :)

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  12. Noisy Quiet, I'm not a very good story teller :) No, the drunken Marine didn't come by and apologize . . . the friends with whom he was staying came over and explained the situation. The Marine was way too embarrassed to show his face :) the net stockings . . haha . . bring back memories???!!

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  13. Lol! I thought for sure he came back to do the "honorable" thing! Funny that your neighbors outed him!

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