Is It Just Me?
Join Wimberley humorist Susan Rigby as she attempts to navigate “the small stuff.”
I think we all have at least one memorable story from our childhood. When I was a young teenager, my father was employed for six months in Egypt. My mother and we kids stayed home. As a necessary part of the story, I was a second child, a girl. I knew my mother always wanted a boy, but she didn’t seem to hold it against me.
While my Dad was in Egypt, he said he made friends with a Sheik. From the letters he sent, he seemed to get along very well with the man and was even introduced to his harem. My Dad told me he showed our pictures to his friends in Egypt, including the Sheik. I always hated my 13- yearold school picture that he carried in his wallet. It was the worst picture I have ever taken and that is saying a lot.
In one of my Dad’s letters, he said that the Sheik offered to buy me for the price of two camels. I would think camels were worth a lot in Egypt, and I was pretty sure my Dad was joking.
Yet, not long after that, I saw the phone number of the City Planner on my Mother’s desk. I even think I heard her mention that she might want to get an estimate to have our large back yard fenced. Surely, she wasn’t thinking of taking up the Sheik on that camel offer.
I did start to wonder a little when my Dad finally returned from Egypt — carrying a camel saddle. Maybe my mother couldn’t talk the City Planner into allowing a camel? Maybe getting the back yard fenced was too expensive? Maybe I just had an overactive imagination?
I breathed a sigh of relief when our third sibling was a boy. We still have the camel seat and the backyard was never fenced. All seemed well in our crazy family.
