Around 1954, my folks bought me a special toy. I had seen it on display in Zappa’s corner store and could not stop talking about it. It was a pirate ship, but not just any toy ship. It was Ideal! This boat, named the Jolly Roger, had it all: masts, sails, rigging, gangplank, cannon, lifeboat, anchor, crow’s nest and a crew! And, it could be pulled along on wheels or float in water. It was the ultimate plaything as far as I was concerned and I wanted it. At the time it was around five dollars, a costly item to own.
I played with it out in the front yard, back porch and bath tub. My crew of white plastic pirates looked for buried treasure and towns to plunder. I could place the crew on deck, in the rigging or lifeboat; even make them walk the plank if necessary. I really enjoyed that ship and took good care of it.
The next year, we moved to our new house on the northwest side of the city. The pirate ship came with me and provided some connection to our old apartment. I would come home from school, after being taunted as the new kid, and take out the Jolly Roger to direct my crew to sail on and discover a tropical island somewhere away from the bullies.
My youngest sister had been recently born (the reason I believe for the move – as it would have gotten crowded in the old place!) and I remember one sunshine summer day while mom was out in the back yard hanging the laundry up on the clotheslines, it became my duty to watch her.
I took out the pirate ship and headed for the bathroom where I plugged the drain and began to fill the tub with water to sail the boat. While the tub was filling, and my little sister was at the edge of the tub watching the swirling water encompass the ship, I went to the back porch window to ask my mom something (which I don’t remember), perhaps when lunch would be or something.
She became excited and asked me where my sister, who was not quite one year old, was. I told her and she yelled for me to get in the bathroom and watch her so she didn’t fall in! I really didn’t think that could happen since she could hardly walk and the walls of the tub were high for her, but I said okay and headed back.
To my horror, my sister had fallen into the tub, and I found her flailing about on her stomach trying to keep her head above water. She had managed to lean over the rail of the tub, probably to touch the boat, and slipped over the edge. Thankfully, it must have been only a few seconds, since the water was only about 2 inches high, but I was terrified as to what would happen next. I grabbed her and took her out of the water, grabbing a towel to wipe her down. I remember saying something to her like, “don’t tell mom what happened!” Certainly I would be punished for this! But I wasn’t.
When mom came in, very shortly after, she saw my sister in her wet diapers and me with a look of “I’m really sorry,” on my face. I realized then that my little sister, within a matter of seconds, could have drown in the shallow water of the bathtub had I stayed in the back window a bit longer. Mom must have had a sixth sense of what was about to happen.
I do not recall, after an immediate admonishment from mom as she changed my sister’s wet clothes, any more being said about the incident. I know my father was told about it because after that day, my pirate ship disappeared, never to be seen again. I figure there was no punishment because I didn’t do anything wrong or intentional, I was just 10 years old and not ready to be a baby sitter for mom.
But the Jolly Roger made its last journey, no doubt, to the concrete mausoleum in the back yard.
