Oh the good old days… I remember watching Hee Haw as a little girl and dreaming about being on that, as well as the Barbara Mandrell show. Seeing clips of Hee Haw though doesn’t only bring up memories of my childhood dreams – becoming a famous country singer, it also brings up memories of us kids cussing. Quite often, we were left alone as little kids, so my sister, brother and I had a lot of time to brush up on our cussing skills. Although, I probably didn’t sling the cuss words out as much as my two siblings, I would belt out a bad word or two and laugh along with them, as we took a fake drag from our stick cigarettes while driving the stationary Lincoln Contenintals that were broken down behind our house, and pretending to be whatever our definition of “cool” was at the time.
When my mom was home and a bad word would slip from our mouths she would fill a cap of Tabasco sauce and make us drink it as punishment. Little did she know that over time, we grew to like the tangy, spicy taste of Tabasco.

One day, my brother, who is 18 months younger than I and probably only 5 or 6 years old at the time, decided to practice some of his cuss words on me. Being the orderly, responsible one of us three kids, I felt it was my duty to tattle- and I told on everyone quite often; so it was no surprise when I made it known to my brother that I would be telling on him as soon as our mom got home. I waited patiently, watching Hee Haw and singing along, but also practicing how I would say the words to my mom in a manner where I would not get myself into trouble. Unbeknownst to me, my brother was preparing to receive his punishment. When our mom walked through the door I started to tell her and in the midst of my telling, my little brother interrupted and fired out every one of the words and then some. To my amazement, he then held up a bottle of Tabasco sauce and drank it down. To this day, he rarely eats without adding Tabasco to his meal, but I think he might skip the cuss words beforehand.