I was nine or ten when I first caught the Get Smart bug.  It was witty, sarcastic, and all about spies. And for some reason, I don’t know why, Hymie the robot caught my attention.  Maybe because he was so literal in following instructions, and this struck me as silly.  If you were in a hurry and told Hymie to “shake a leg,” he wouldn’t walk faster -- he’d stand there on one leg while shaking the other one.

For some reason, I wanted the other kids at school to think I was a robot, like Hymie.  So I took a piece of paper and drew a (very inartistic) sketch of my left arm, showing various freckles.  Then I labeled the  freckles as if they were buttons.  This is a greatly improved version of a third-grader’s sketch. Then I told Mom that I was going to leave some copies of this diagram out on the school playground to make other kids think I was a robot.

My mom showed great composure by pretending to go along with this scheme and seemed to take this stupid idea as if it were seriously to be considered.

Nowadays I can’t even count the ways that this was silly or dumb or what-have-you.  The thing was drawn in pencil by a second- or third grader.  Not too authoritative, huh?  Also, if I remember right, I didn’t even write my name or any other ID on the scrap of paper.  So how could kids know WHO was supposed to be the robot?

It’s remembering goofy things like this that brings home to me the saintliness of my parents.
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