I took my church class on a "ding, dong, ditch" excursion last week. We were pretending to be Santa's elves and left homemade cards, ornaments, and goodies to some members of our church. The kids talked the talked but proved they could not walk the walk. Maybe it was that we had 6 (3 boys and 3 girls) and that is too many for this kind of activity to remain hidden. One girl didn't even try to hide and was chided by her classmates the rest of the night, which caused a whole lot of ruckus. One of the highlights of the night was when the boys, who were in charge of one particular house, were scared out of their wits: the owner of the house saw them and scared them as they approached the door.
On Sunday I spoke to the wife of the house and she said they didn't really expect to get anything out of the "ding, dong, ditch" and were trying to get back at the young rowdies in the neighborhood. Apparently there are many kids in the nearby neighborhoods from one end of the school boundaries to the other who either on their way to school or their way home like to ring people's doorbells and run off. This lady said they've had their doorbell rung with no one waiting on the doorstep numerous times. She said that once she opened the door and was greeted by a bag of poo lit on fire.
Another lady told me that it's usual for the doorbell to ring at her house at 3:30 pm, which is when school is out. She's been conditioned to not answer the door, but is reminded that her children will be home any minute.
Aside from seeing the dog poo on fire trick on the movies, it never occurred to me to either leave nothing or a prank while performing this rite of passage. My mom always had us kids deliver fudge to her neighborhood friends around Christmas using this technique. In college there were "chain" doorbell ditches where if you were hit you were expected to return the favor by delivering some baked goods to another apartment.
Still it was a humorous experience and the kids did beat their old teacher's house, which they failed just a few years ago. They swore it was a difficult house, but I knew they could do it if they just hid in the right spot. Maybe in a couple of years they'll learn to be quiet as they move from one house to another and to wait a few extra minutes before ringing the doorbell again just in case the resident is extra slow answering the door. Of course, by then they'll probably be past this stage, the girls more interested in spying on boys and the boys more interested in staying in and playing video games.
On Sunday I spoke to the wife of the house and she said they didn't really expect to get anything out of the "ding, dong, ditch" and were trying to get back at the young rowdies in the neighborhood. Apparently there are many kids in the nearby neighborhoods from one end of the school boundaries to the other who either on their way to school or their way home like to ring people's doorbells and run off. This lady said they've had their doorbell rung with no one waiting on the doorstep numerous times. She said that once she opened the door and was greeted by a bag of poo lit on fire.
Another lady told me that it's usual for the doorbell to ring at her house at 3:30 pm, which is when school is out. She's been conditioned to not answer the door, but is reminded that her children will be home any minute.
Aside from seeing the dog poo on fire trick on the movies, it never occurred to me to either leave nothing or a prank while performing this rite of passage. My mom always had us kids deliver fudge to her neighborhood friends around Christmas using this technique. In college there were "chain" doorbell ditches where if you were hit you were expected to return the favor by delivering some baked goods to another apartment.
Still it was a humorous experience and the kids did beat their old teacher's house, which they failed just a few years ago. They swore it was a difficult house, but I knew they could do it if they just hid in the right spot. Maybe in a couple of years they'll learn to be quiet as they move from one house to another and to wait a few extra minutes before ringing the doorbell again just in case the resident is extra slow answering the door. Of course, by then they'll probably be past this stage, the girls more interested in spying on boys and the boys more interested in staying in and playing video games.
0 comments: