A few months ago, my DH and I drove about a thousand miles to go to my hometown, because my lifelong dearest friend had been hospitalized and things were not looking good. (She is doing better now.)

At one point, we drove to see the house where I grew up, and stopped to have an ice cream at the Baskin-Robbins where I can remember sharing the occasional ice cream cone with my easygoing Dad - my mother was too cheap to ever permit this, so we did it on the sly and it was wonderful! Amazing that the BR is still there, in the same place. (This was 50+ years ago.) I pointed out to DH that right next to the BR had been a "five and dime" store where I felt compelled to commit a burglary at age 5.

I loved to roller skate - and for those of you old enough to remember this, you had to have a "skate key" in order to fasten your skates to the soles of your shoes. Without the skate key, you couldn't skate.

After skating, I was always very careful to put my skates and skate key away in the same place in our garage. But one day, inexplicably, my skate key was missing. I had no siblings to blame this on, and no one but my parents had access to our garage. I told my mother that I couldn't find my skate key. She told me, "Look some more." I scoured every inch of that garage, but there was no skate key to be found.

It seemed like I went for ages without skating, unless I could mooch a skate key from another kid. But every time I asked my mother for a nickel to buy a skate key, she refused. I remember picking one up and putting it on the counter with her other purchases at the store. She responded crushingly, "Put that back, we don't need it today." I burst into tears and said my key had been missing FOREVER, but she would not relent.

The next time we were in that store, I slipped a skate key into my pocket and walked out with it. I did not feel a shred of remorse, nor do I to this day. I had asked and asked and asked, and had been turned down every time. I was tired of watching the other kids skate and not being able to. So much trauma for five little cents!

I remember hearing my mother tell another mother, years later, "If you say 'NO' to them every time they ask for something, they'll eventually learn not to ask." Well, you got that one right, Mom, but I don't think you quite had that lesson in mind.

My DH asked me, "Do you suppose your mother deliberately took it away because she was tired of patching up your skinned knees?" Looking back, it wouldn't surprise me. She did not seem happy that I had acquired a new key. But I made a point of keeping that new key hidden, and it stayed with me until I was old enough not to care about skating any more.

It never occurred to me to confess this theft during a worthiness interview. . .

It is very common for children of that age to steal something, because they are in the early stages of understanding right and wrong. I stole a small black water pistol from Woolworth's when I was five. I also stole a hot pepper from a neighbor's garden. In both instances I learned a valuable lesson. I felt guilty over taking the toy, and hid it, never using it. And my mouth burned terribly for several minutes after taking a bite of that beautiful red pepper.

Your lesson was how you figured out that you were smart enough to outwit your hard nosed mother. You knew what you needed to do and did it. Gotta lot the spunk of five year olds. It's good that you didn't confess it either.