The Day I Disappeared

Maclean show, 18 months

My parents often told this story about one of my early experiences. I was about 18 months old at the time, obviously too young to remember it.

One day Dad was working in the car shed. Eventually, his patience ran out in the face of my incessant ‘tar tar, tar tar, tar tar.’ ‘Oh, tar tar’, he exclaimed.

A while later Mum appeared in the shed. ‘Have you seen Kenneth?’ she asked. ‘I thought he was with you’ replied Dad. Then the panic started because, after all, a farm is not the safest place in the world for a straying toddler.  A hurried search commenced.

It probably didn't take long till I was spotted. There I was toddling through the cows heading towards my grandparent's place.

By the time Dad caught up with me I was pulling up a chair for lunch at Nana and Pa’s place, rather hot and red in the face. Now you would think that after all that effort and initiative I would be rewarded with the lunch I looked forward to. But that was not to be.