Sunday, July 24, 2011

And I can take you for a ride...

...on my big green tractor
We can go slow or make it go faster
Down through the woods and out to the pasture
Long as I'm with you, it really don't matter...
-Jason Aldean, "Big Green Tractor"

When I was a kid, I hated running errands with my mom. Hated with a passion. "Running errands" could mean anything from going to the bank (where I'd inevitably get a lollipop) to going to KMart and Old America (anyone else remember that store? It was a kind of a precursor to Michael's). These weren't exactly horrible places to go, but just the phrase "running errands" was enough to send me running into the woods to hide.

However, one of the highlights of running errands with mom was the knowledge that if a trip to KMart was involved, I'd get to ride the merry-go-round. Rides at the fair had nothing on this little carousel - it was red and it had 4 little plastic horses. For a mere 25 cents, you could ride around in circles, very small circles, for approximately 12 seconds. But boy did I look forward to it.

A little while back, I was dragging Jay around for a variety of errands, and for some reason we ended up at KMart. I couldn't resist. He was underwhelmed.

How is his head touching the top? He's only three!

Want to know why he's underwhelmed by 12 seconds of riding the KMart merry-go-round? Why doesn't the excitement of this motivate him to behave during errands?

Because his daddy uses this as the good behavior bribe:


Oh yeah. Arrrrgggg. Growwwwl. (insert additional manly noises here) Who needs to waste a quarter on the tiny carousel when you've got the lawnmowers at Home Depot & Lowes?

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Love it! By the way, you must be a really nice mom -- I'm too cheap to put the quarter in. R just has to sit there and pretend that the horses (or ice cream truck or train) move.

Jen F. said...

Perhaps I should try that, Amy - pretending it moves is much closer to what actually happens on the lawnmowers!

ANAPatterson said...

Love it! Wow he is getting tall or those carousels are shrinking. I am also too cheap to put the quarter in and our K-mart its .75. I like the Home Depot or Lowe's lawnmowers. We do that at Bass Pro or Gander Mountain on the 4-wheeler and go carts.

Jamie said...

That just brought back memories of us singing the Waccamaw pottery song and changing the words to "Waccamaw, Wac-Waccamaw, Walk away from Waccamaw!" whenever our moms would drag us there when we were at the beach!
I also think it is hilarious that Jay is on the carousel horse with a confused look on his face, but a HUGE grin on the tractor.

Anonymous said...

ahhh....the Waccamaw Pottery days!!! Sure do miss those good 'ol days, huh?! AJ/Mom

Anonymous said...

Perhaps Jay would be more interested in the Kmart door. ;)
Aunt Ali

Mindy Marshall said...

I had not heard this Jason Aldean song for ages and then the morning after your blog, it was on the radio. That's the second time that's happened . . . first was with a Tracy Chapman song. Makes me smile and think of you when it happens. :-) Tell those boys to head out this way and we'll put them on some tractors in motion!