Toilet papering the home of juniors and seniors is a
Homecoming week tradition in our community.
I went to grab the newspaper on the morning of Tuesday, October 2 and
simultaneously groaned and chuckled (groakled? chuckned?) upon seeing the bushes
in the front of our home and the trees covered in TP. The morning mist made the white ribbons of
paper a bit damp. Tuesday, October 2 was
also my first day of chemo. Awesome.
Our high school junior went to school for an early morning workout session
before the sun rose, so she didn’t even see the toilet paper. I knew she wouldn’t have the time to remove
it that night or the next, and I didn’t want it hanging on the trees for all to
see. Maybe that’s the point of TP’ing
someone’s house, but I spent my teen years in Hawaii and toilet papering was
not something I grew up with. (In 1971,
the west coast had a dock strike, so goods like toilet paper did not come in to
the state, forcing people to ration.)
It would be dark when our daughter arrived home that night, so I meticulously removed the toilet paper. The bushes were easy but the trees required a painter’s poll and a ladder. I made sure the ladder was stable, since falling off it just before chemo didn’t seem like such a great idea. A few random strands were left in the trees, and hubby had no clue our house had been TP’d by the time he awoke.
If this is how all chemo days are going to begin, then let’s get this party started.
