The Return of Sleepytime Daycare

My brother and I never had to return to the “Sleepytime” daycare, but that didn’t stop “Sleepytime” from tormenting me again as a child. It so happens the daycare that I would spend my early formative years in was “The Gingerbread House” which was located directly behind “Sleepytime”. What are the chances? Maybe Mom didn’t really look that hard for a replacement – well look – there is another one of these places – let’s try that one! I’m not sure how the selection process was done.

“The Gingerbread House” (TGH) was also a converted house, but it was only a single floor – which I considered a major safely improvement over the sleepytime deathtrap where they put children into the fireplace.

The fenced in backyard of TGH shared a common fence with Sleepytime at the very back. The play area at TGH was divided up with mostly the boys playing as far away from the TGH as possible. I believe it was hoped that we would be beyond the careful glaze of our teachers and from this great distance we could get away with just about anything.

One day a not so bright schoolmate got the idea that he should jump the back fence of TGH into the next yard. I knew what fait awaked this kid – the sleepytime - but I felt no desire to warn this kid. I would call this kid by name, but to be honest it escapes me and really he isn’t the point of this story. If this kid wad dumb enough to break into “Sleepytime” he deserved the fireplace torture that awaited him. His first attempt was a spectacular attempt to jump the fence with a big-wheel. It was a monumental failure, but still a vision I can conjure up for a laugh. The big-wheel, while large in wheel never was much of a jumping vehicle as it would be proved time and again for many years to come. Somehow just like Evil Knievel he survived the big-wheel feat. Even with this failure still fresh on him he was able to convince other stupid children that their next attempt should be to dig a hole under the fence. I’m sure this kid grew up to a salesman at Circuit City or something like that. At this point, I began to retreat. My hasty retreat was noted and someone was sent to find me hiding in the playhouse to see what was up and was I going to tell. I assured them I wasn’t going to tell, but I wasn’t going to help them dig a hole back into the sleepytime daycare jail yard. They just didn’t understand. How could they?