If I Were Harriet the Spy

Wonderturtle got me thinking about favorite childhood novels the other day. I did more book reports than I should have on Harriet the Spy. I was always and advanced reader and was reading Ray Bradbury stories in the third grade, but I think I got away with doing book reports on this one until the sixth grade.

From the ages of seven to ten I got it into my head that I was Harriet. I carried a notebook in my pocket anywhere I went. I turned out my bedroom lights and peered through the next door neighbors' windows trying to observe their lives and record observations about them. I convinced Jenny from next door to wander the neighborhood with me looking for people to spy on. I hid in bushes under open windows.

But I lacked the nerve and daring of Harriet. I couldn't bring myself to go into people's homes. I wasn't even brave enough to go into their yards to get a closer look. My observations were pathetic.

It is my biggest failing in life.

I was never tough enough to be Harriet.

Maybe if I had found the courage to sneak onto private property and hide out in dumbwaiters, I would be something more exciting than a scientist today.