But, I digress ...
Reading Yvonne (Fiction Books) recalling her husbands unfortunate mishap involving a rubber dart sucker put me in mind of Mr T and the face paints.
Way back when he was a play worker employed by a play scheme for children under 11 the group was invited to a 'Cowboy 'n' Indian' event in order to celebrate the construction of another play schemes fort.
A red hot day it was decided we should be the Indians, our hosts the cowboys.
Now Mr T, I think its fair to say, has a thing about dressing up (our photo album has everything from him dressed as Father Christmas to a gorilla - an unfortunate event that led to police involvement but more of that another time - to a care bear and a .... naughty nun) and as such went the whole hog.
Stripped to the waist (oh those were the days, you wouldn't get away with this now) he liberally applied 'Indian war paint' symbols to his face and body. So far so good except .....
A red hot day (or at least what constitutes red hot in north east England) Mr T was left beautifully tanned apart from ...
Yeah, you guessed.
The patches that had been covered in the face paint had effectively acted as sun screen leaving his chest, back and (whoops) his face in stark contrast to the rest of his upper half.
Not so bad but try being taken seriously when you have an important meeting to attend and turn up with your face covered with the imprint of various native American war symbols.
As for Kelly's (Thoughts & Ramblings) comment regarding my issue with birds ...
I've had a fear of birds ever since I was a tot. Undoubtedly my mam's fault as though I can't remember it when I was a little girl a bird flew into the house and my man (who also has a fear of birds) ran out leaving me trapped with it. Something I may well have recovered from if wasn't for the fact that many years later I was targeted by a pigeon (I say targeted as despite what Mr T might tell you this was no random accident but a malicious premeditated attack) who, its talons caught in my hair, left me with a lacerated scalp, blood running down my face which I'm sure you'll agree is enough to make anyone wary.
9 comments:
Oh my! I can certainly understand your fear now knowing about the attack (and yes, I've heard numerous stories about birds defending their nests so I don't doubt it was premeditated) and imagine it was terrifying. Nothing bleeds like a head wound, so I'm sure it was quite a memorable experience.
The rare times I've had a bird get in the house it's probably stressed me as much as the bird trying to "herd" it back out.
Thanks for following up and sharing these stories.
LOL! Great stories. Glad you are okay. That bird story would put me off of them as well!
That was the funniest story I have heard in a long time,
I believe that there was a Jerry Lewis movie where something similar happened with a suntan.
That's funny about the face paint. A new kind of sun screen!
Hi Tracy,
Thanks for the mention and for the link back at Fiction Books site, both are much appreciated.
I can't say that I am totally comfortable with birds flying around my head, however my parents always kept budgerigars when we were children, so we were quite used to having them flying around the lounge and handling them on a regular basis.
Pigeons and seagulls are a different kettle of fish though and I have been well and truly spotted by both over the course of time. Unfortunately, once you have been zapped by a seagull, the stench is so all pervading and disgusting, especially if, like me, it was first thing in the morning and I was on my way to work!
You have no idea how good it is to know that Mr.G and Mr.T sound as though they belong in the same class at school - that's the 'Peter Pan' school, for little boys who never want to grow up :)
I have an entire catalogue of stories with a similar theme and I often wonder whether behaviour which always made him such a brilliant uncle, would have been quite as funny if he had been a father, or whether we would have had children who were mentally scarred for life!
Great post and once again, thanks for all the nice things you say :)
Yvonne
I really appreciate well-written comments. A wonderful "follow up" post! And thanks for the entertaining tidbits about "face paint and pigeons".
Now I know what to use when I'm out of sun screen.
I have a fear of dogs. As a baby I was chased around by one that used to bite me on my nappy. Apparently. How embarrassing.
Good grief! Talk about a validated fear of birds. I'm surprised you can even write about them!
Thanks for explaining your fear of birds. Makes sense! And despite what Mr T might say, it probably was a premeditated attack. Hasn't he seen Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds? I don't really have any bird fears, but I don't like eating outside if there are seagulls because I've had them leave...deposits...in my food at least twice. Yuck!
And I'm really looking forward to hearing more about Mr T, the gorilla suit, and the police! Hopefully with pictures!
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