Heading out on my own...

I tried my hand at running away from home only once, I was 5 or 6.  Several other times I stowed away in the backseat of my oldest sister's car, but that wasn't running away.  That was hoping for a sleep-over. 

It was triggered by a little thing.  I got caught retaliating against an older sibling and was the only one to get in trouble.  Does being told you will be sent to your room immediately after dinner count as getting in trouble?  More so back then versus today (the only electronic device in the room was the light fixture on the ceiling).  In any case, I was offended and made plans to escape after dinner, no point in hitting the road on an empty stomach.

The plan was to go to my room and then climb out the window.  My room was on the 1st floor, but since our basement windows were above ground on that side of the house, it was too high to just jump (for a six-year-old).  So before dinner I took an old sliding-board ladder from behind our shed and placed it under my window.  Then I gathered a few keepsakes and placed them inside a kerchief, tied it up at the corners and attached it to a stick--my hobo bag.  LOL!  I was going to ride the rails.  But unlike a true hobo, I was going to have money.  I was taking my plastic Mickey Mouse bank.  It was shaped like a book, so no one would even know I had money.  (Note: It was made out of hard plastic, contained only coins, and  made a terrible racket when I moved it--but still, I thought it would be my secret.)

With everything in place, after dinner I dutifully marched off to my bedroom--which was on the other side of a wall from the dining room.  As I carefully unlocked and pushed up the screen, I heard a sister ask "What's he doing in there?" ("Perfect", I thought, "They have no idea what I'm doing.")  I grabbed my stuff, scampered down the ladder, and headed towards the railroad tracks.  That took me past our dining room windows and SOMEHOW my family saw me.  I could hear them, "What's he doing? He's outside!"  ("Ha, they still haven't figured it out!!!" I told myself.)  I made a run for it as 3 of my siblings came out the backdoor.  The sister who once encouraged me to leave, sat quietly finishing her dinner. ;P

They cut off my route to the train tracks, but I "showed them a leg" (according to my dad, old football slang for faking one direction and going another), zigged and zagged and headed for the woods.  With all the changes in direction, I'm not sure how far I ran, but they cornered me about 50 yards from home.  As they escorted me back to the house I noticed the secret slide on my plastic bank was open and I'd lost my grubstake.  Broke!  It would be a while before I could try again.

Of course I never tried again.  I was only melodramatic enough to attempt that once.  And running away, well, I quickly learned it just wasn't for me. 

So, did you ever think about running away when you were a child?  Have your kids tried it???