I used to be an expert at getting lost, making myself scarce, zipping off, disappearing, escaping their clutches and going on the lam.
My advantages were size and speed.
They were bigger and longer limbed.
But I could fit under the hedge. In fact I could speed off through the hole in the hedge without slowing.
By the time my pursuers had left the back garden and gone round to next door, I was out of that garden, under the next hedge, and the next one, the next one, the next one, all the way to the end of the row.
In my pyjamas of course. And maybe a dressing gown.
I can’t remember what the neighbours made of my lightning visits, but they put a smile on my face.
What happened? Why did they stop? I can’t remember.
The hedge grew? I grew? (Shouldn’t really be a question mark there.) We moved? (Perhaps to escape exasperated neighbours.)
It’s about time I did more running. I can’t fit under the hedges anymore, but I might be able to hoke out a dressing gown to run in
(If you’ve managed to find your way this far, you can continue on to the rest of the Loose Bloggers Consortium who are also posting on the topic in the title. Scroll down the right hand side of the screen and you find their links listed.)
Blackwatertown 
This is genuinely funny, entertaining and nostalgically truthful to most I think.
I ran off often, so often I think my mother stopped fretting -I always returned on my own. Even before I could walk, I disappeared on her. As the story goes; as an infant she would put me outside to sleep in the warmth of the early morning sun while she did her chores. The neighbours, an older couple who sat out most of day on their side veranda, would see her coddle me all up in blankets in a stroller. The he would sneak down, snatch me, take me back to back so they could watch me sleep and get a peak of my mother go briefly insane for a moment.
Thank you for the first bit. It is true anyway.
Those neighbours sound fiendish. Your poor Mum.
I used to be left outside to sleep in the pram too. Fresh air. Maybe an anti-cat net. I hear people are arrested in America for less.
Were getting old, times have changed. What got you arrested then, is in vogue now. And what was innocent then now gets you arrested. Pause for thought.
Hemlines, hats, social mores and morality – all movable feasts it seems – especially if you look at the long sweep of history.
I never ran away from home, never mind through a hedge. I can feel the twiggy branches on my legs as I write. It makes me want to curl up under a blanket.
Mmm… blanket. Tired…
Really wonderful.
Thanks from me.
Too kind.
We ran away from each other. I grew up in a rural setting and hiding, chasing and running were primetime sports.
Clotheslines at twilight disappear. Hit one of those bad boys at full speed and it’s like Wiley Cayote chasing the Road Runner. Get out the Acme Med Kit!
Ooh – nasty.
Ran away from home (San Diego) at age 15. I became the first female lumberjack (lumber Jill) — at least that I’m aware of — on the Columbia River (runs between Oregon and Washington state). Had the time of my life! Didn’t return “home” until I was well into my 20’s (although I’d certainly made contact with my folks, especially Mom, several times in-between).
Running away is MORE and LESS than it’s cracked up to be — both.
I’d like to read THAT book!
You’re right about the more and less.
I never ran away when I was a kid. Though why I never absconded from my awful boarding school, where I was constantly bullied, I still can’t explain. Maybe because the authoritarian regime had successfully undermined any sense of individual initiative.
Maybe it was esprit de corp – not deserting your embattled comrades?
To keep your kids in your garden don’t live beside neighbours with a large friendly Pyrenean mountain dog when he visits you he leaves a large Romanesque archway. Of course, the advantage is that the complete pursuing battalion can troop through it at speed.
I suspect the spirit of the going on of “the 1am” is still with you! It has likely all stood you in good stead for zipping out of all manner of awkward and unsavoury situations in adult life!!
I dunno. I think I’ve lost the knack. Or maybe the hedges have grown thicker.
It’s the hedges lol…blame it on global warming 🙂
Could be overgrown due to excessive hedge funds!
Lol 😉 Nice one! 😉
Once again you give me a good laugh, much needed. Still, I’m lookin’ at the big head (looks like a horse) and wondering why it didn’t slow you down. Blessings – Maxi
I can relate to the bloke on the lamb. I went on one running away from a young lady who insisted that I get married to her when I was not ready. http://rummuser.com/?p=1494
Comments are closed back at that post of yours, so I’ll remark here on what good fortune you’ve had. Brings to mind Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis, for a long time my favourite book.
I like your writing style.
Good site.
What an adventure…maybe you can still hide ‘behind’ a hedge!! Go man go…put on your running shoes and take off that dressing gown! Do people still wear one?
My goodness, what sort of an uncivilised place do you come from?
Running without one’s dressing gown on?! Scandalous.
Next thing you know the Olympics will be permitting shot putters to loosen their cravats.
Dear oh dear.
Hell in a handbasket – that’s where the world’s going to these days.