I Remember

Lice Season

School time brought many shameful memories. Such as starting school a week after everyone else had already started. It was three of us so grandma had to save money and make sure we had at least one skirt and two shirts to start the new year. We were poor so we had to wait. While everyone else went to the mall or down town to buy their Schools supplies my grandmother lay away our stuff with this Indian man who sold everything but a kitchen sink. He had all knock off's everything so we had all the knock off's items. They looked cheap and were ridiculously ugly. Not only were we late starting school but we were the bo-bos queens. We had the bottom of the brands. Our shoes were big and heavy. Like orthopedic shoes while everyone else wore the name brand penny loafers. Of course we weren't the only ones but our friends were up to date. The only thing we had up to date were our shot.. I think....
Embarrassing to put it mildly.
My grandmother owe the Indian man that's the reason we started late every time. Robbing Peter to pay Paul as usual. My sister had Chinese people hair texture grandmother would put ponytails in her hair and it would slide off her hair. For this reason she would always get lice, bring it home and infest the whole house. Grandma would make a mixture of alcohol and crushed moth balls. We would line up and she would pour it on our already irritated from scratching-heads, we would run around as if we're filled with the holy ghost and cry. She would wrap our heads with a white pillow case and wait and hour until all eggs and lice will die then wash our heads with big bar soaps then grease it and braid it. We also had to boil water and disinfect the pillows, sheets and rooms with bleach. We did this at least twice a year. My sister had sweet blood. She couldn't escape them.