Kid Needs Street Smarts

The twenty-eight houses on our street perhaps yields only seven or eight children under the age of twelve. One particular lad, Charlie is approximately eight years old. He is the spitting image of the television character, Dennis 'The Menace.' He behaves like Dennis. Example: One day this summer,  I was cutting the front lawn. Charlie came running towards me frantically waving his hands. Naturally, I turned off the power-mower to listen to his comments. He smile and spoke, "What are you doing Mr. Roustio?" I said, "Charlie, you should not do that; run at someone waving your hands. I thought something bad happened at your house. You can see what I'm doing, I'm cutting the grass."

Actually, Charlie will ask the question, 'What are you doing no matter how obvious your activity. One day, I was preparing to spray for insects around the outside of the foundation. After I explained to Charlie the 'what & why,' I saw two caterpillars on the ground and picked them up placing them in a small coffee can. When Charlie asked what I was going to do with the caterpillars, I don't know what motivated my explanation but it just came out. I said, "Charlie, I eat caterpillars at night and the next morning I fart a butterfly." Complete silence. You guessed it, his mother was upset with me...seems Charlie ate about four or five fuzzy-crawlers and 'messed' his pajamas trying to let a fart.

The boy is 'home-schooled.' If he attended Decatur Public Schools, Charlie would quickly develop some street smarts. Any fourth grade city school kid knows that you capture caterpillars during recess and put them down the blouse of the girl sitting in front you you.