Grounded

Being teased by my older brothers was a natural occurrence growing up. One of my favorite stories has to do with the time my best friend (and next door neighbor) came over to play on a cold winter day. She asked my mom, "Why is there food hanging outside Kevin's bedroom window?" Of course this puzzled my mother. Kevin (my brother) had been grounded and punished to his bedroom for a couple of days (something he considered to be torturous).

When my mother went upstairs to inspect my friend's claims, she found a 2-liter bottle of soda and a ziploc bag of deli-sliced ham hanging outside his window from a 12-foot piece of string. Apparently Kevin felt as if he'd been "imprisoned" for days on end, and stored his rations outside his bedroom window...which only makes sense. At least he had the decency to keep the ham in cold temperatures so that it wouldn't spoil. Now that's thinking ahead.