Monday, June 30, 2008

I wanted to see if it would fit!

My sister reminded me this morning of an incident from my early years that I had completely forgotten -- the time I got my elbow stuck in a jar of peanut butter.

Yes -- you read that correctly -- elbow stuck in a jar of peanut butter.

I must have been about 6 years old or so...and we were visiting our beloved Granny in Ohio. I remember loving to visit her -- aside from the fact that she would let us play with her make-up and jewelry ("Darlings - be beautiful -- you never know who's watching!") -- she would turn us loose in the kitchen and we'd play for hours with bottles and containers -- I remember thinking of the big bottle of vinegar as the "Dad" and the small bottle of vanilla extract -- as, well, ME...

But, I digress...

So my sister and I were in her kitchen playing, goofing around as young girls are prone to do, and it occured to me that the opening of the peanut butter jar looked about the same size as my (then quite small) elbow. So I tried it out.

And it fit!

Really!

You see where this is going -- once in, my elbow was STUCK. I literally had a jar of peanut butter stuck on my bent elbow. And this was the early 70's...when peanut butter came in a glass jar.

My sister pulled at it...I tried popping it off...nothing. It was good and stuck -- suction is an amazing thing!

And then, in came Granny -- who only had one question -- "how did you get your elbow stuck in a jar of peanut butter?"

And in the now immortal words of a six-year-old, I told her -- "I wanted to see if it would fit."

Made perfect sense at the time. I mean, I was there, the peanut butter was there -- and I had an audience -- why not see if it would fit??

So Granny wrapped my arm in a towel and took me outside where she smashed the glass to get it off my elbow.

No harm...no foul...no blood even.

And no one was in the least upset -- not me, not my sister (who just thought it was about the funniest thing she'd ever seen) -- and certainly not Granny.

It never occured to us to sue the Peter Pan Peanut Butter company...or to punish me...it just was what is was -- a six-year-old with a jar of peanut butter stuck on her elbow.

My sister's reminder this morning got me to thinking -- what ever happened to young girl who saw a jar of peanut butter and her elbow and thought "why not?"

What would you "try" if you had no fear?

1 comment:

Kathy said...

So funny. I remember it like it was yesterday.