Perfect Aunties

When I was growing up, my Dad had some quaint old fashioned notions of what a good girl should or shouldn’t do. I didn’t want to make him sad I tried so hard to please him. But dear old Daddy didn’t have a clue. Sometime I slipped a little and I’d hear my daddy say. “My sisters Cass and Annie would never act that way. They never would have cut their hair. To wear those shorts they wouldn’t dare. If our pa caught them, they would rue the day. They might not listen to their ma, but they could not bamboozle Pa. So change your clothes or in the house you’ll stay.” I tried to be so very good and make my Daddy proud. I always did just as I should and nothing not allowed. I wondered what my aunts had done to have a little fun. He told me what they hadn’t but never what they’d done. And then when I was older, my brother took a wife. He raised a little daughter, the treasure of his life. The other day she told me how her dad would always say “My sisters Joyce and Gladys would never act that way.” She said she’d hated us a lot and wondered how much fun we got from always being so darned good and always acting like we should. I laughed so hard at what she had to say. “You might not listen to your ma, But you cannot bamboozle Pa, So change your clothes or in the house you’ll stay.” She’d tried hard to be so good, to make her daddy proud but he just never understood, some things were now allowed. It was all right to cut your hair, Lipstick and shorts were fine to wear, and that she had such perfect aunts just wasn’t fair. I told her she would have her turn when her own niece would have to learn the first time that she heard her Daddy say, “My sister Bonnie didn’t act that way.” For Leighann Anderson's contest "Free For All"