I LEFT MY KIDS IN WAUKOMIS

 This is the sad tale of when my MOM badge got crushed, annihilated, ran over, and shredded.  Now before true confessions, I have to qualify this post.

Waukomis - a tiny little town about 7 miles from where we lived.  TINY.  As you turn into the town, they have a Quick Shop , and just across from it used to be a Jeep Repair shop and not much else.  Maybe 400 people live there.

So now that you can picture this town, I must add - our Jeep Wagoneer loved money!  It gulped it down in huge amounts by breaking something ALL THE TIME.  So my jeep was in the fix it place AGAIN in Waukomis.  My parents had come to visit us in Enid, and then were going to Midwest City (near OKC) to help my sister fix up her house to sell.  My Jeep was fixed (so they told me) so dad said they'd drop me off to pick up the money gulping jeep on their way to OKC.  My kids were 8 and 9 at the time.  They had money that was burning a hole in their pocket.  So they asked if they could go to the quick shop after we got dropped off in Waukomis.  I said yes, and good grief - it was like Christmas and Halloween all rolled into one.  All by themselves they would go across a tiny street to the Quick Shop to spend their money.

OK.  Now that we have established all that nonsense - here's the setting.  My dad had a Suburban that he had crammed full of stuff to help fix up my sister's house.  Literally - lumber, all his tools, saw, etc.  There was one tiny space in the second seat that I sat in, and the kids got in the very back of the Suburban in a little space that dad made for them.

So we go to Waukomis, the Jeep place, the exciting Quick Shop.  My kids bailed out of that car like their clothes were on fire.  They shot across the street to the Quick Shop to spend their money on junk food.  I hugged my parents goodbye, and sent them on the way.  

Now I'm sad because they are leaving, I am agitated that more money will be gulped down by this Jeep Wagoneer, and also sad that my sister was getting a divorce and selling her house.  I went in and said hi to Jim - who was the repairman - who we know - who was a BIG guy - who knew Charley - who was a big Teddy Bear.  Paid for THE JEEP again, and got in it to go home - thinking the entire time - this blank blank thing had better not break again.  So I pulled onto the highway, and started back home.  Remember - 7 miles back to Enid.  About 2 miles out of Waukomis, I suddenly had this horrifying feeling that I was forgetting something.  It hit me like a ton of bricks that my children were still back in Waukomis.

I literally screamed hysterically, drove full speed across the median to the other lane (I'm shocked I didn't hit anything) and still screaming, hysterical, shoved the gas pedal to the floor.  I hit 100 mph in seconds and I didn't slow down until I turned into Waukomis.  

Now I knew if I was hysterical, the kids would be too.  I straightened my butt up, wiped my face and turned into the repair shop.  Here came my kids running out, with Jim right behind them.  He grinned at me and I KNEW he knew!  But I polished my mom badge up, told the kids that I just took the Jeep for a test ride to be sure it was fixed.  Asked them what all they got at the store.  Jim said they came into the shop and I wasn't there.  He said, "Did your mom forget you?"  April was being brave for her brother but they were both scared.  So Jim just laughed and said, I'll call your dad at the police station.  Jim said he'd call the PD again and let Charley know I had the kids.  

I made it home.  I don't know how!  But I made it home with my precious cargo.  When we got there, my kids ran off to play, and I went into the bedroom, shut the door and proceeded to have a complete and total mom meltdown.  I cried so much, I threw up.  Charley came by, and calmed me down and nothing more was said until ..........  they were older.  I think High School.  They asked me about the time I had "left them in Waukomis" and what that was all about.  I confessed.  I told them the whole horrible story.  

The ending to this story is that for the rest of my life, I have been harassed unmercifully about leaving my kids in Waukomis.  There is not a single family gathering at which this horrific mom failure is not brought out and paraded around.  Over and over and over.  Much laughing ensues again and again and again!

My 16 year old granddaughter texted me the other day.  She is practicing driving alone to a little town 7 miles away after school.  She goes alone, stops at a convenience store and buys goodies for her siblings.  Her last line?????? " But I never left anyone at the store, Mimi!" Her dad put her up to that without a doubt.

So my mom badge was tarnished badly, but at least it gives my kids AND grandkids something to pop off to me when we meet - "well, at least we didn't leave our kids in Waukomis."