Remembering With A Smile Poem by RoseAnn V. Shawiak

Remembering with a smile, a situation when I was just
eleven years old, where a neighbor boy who got me very
angry one day so I called him a jacka**, a word I had
heard my Uncle say recently.

This neighbor boy ran and told my Mom, she called me
and I went running up to her, saying 'What'? Mom then
asked me if I had called him a jacka**, I told her, 'yes,
I did because he got me mad'.

Mom made me apologize to him so I said, 'I'm sorry you're
a jacka**'! And my Mom slapped me for it, never forgot
that slap in the face and God forbid anyone ever touches
my face, even now.

Mom told me one day when in my forties, 'do you remember
that time when you called the neighbor boy a jacka**'?
I told her, 'yes, I never forgot it, why'? Mom told me
that she couldn't do anything else to me, she went into
the house, in the bathroom and laughed so hard she cried.

She had barely been able to control herself in front of
me, she said, I was totally oblivious, just went and
climbed a tree, telling the boy I'd never play with him
again, and I never did, because of the way he treated me.