October 22, 2017. Canyon Lake, Texas. Carol's Curls.

My Mother was not an ogre.  She was a joyful, loving lady, but she cut off my sister's curls to teach her a lesson.  After the fact, she felt terrible, but the damage was done.  All of Carol's curls were on the floor and Carol's hair was short.  Over the years, this true story has been told many times in our family so I do not actually know if I was old enough to have seen the act or that I have just heard it so often that it was familiar to me.  I learned the lesson whether or not I was aware at the time, the lesson being that you have no right to be vain about your hair.  You were born with it.  Ignore it.

My sister as a child had curly auburn hair, not the little orphan annie hair but hair that went into curls which hung down her back.  She received many compliments.  One day, Mother saw Carol primping in front of the mirror, admiring her own hair.  My Mother was having none of that so she got the scissors and cut off all the curls.   Apparently, Carol was not upset and nor was my Mother, thinking that the curls would come back.  But they never did.  Carol's hair came in straight.   From then on, Carol wore her hair short, which was always wavy but no real curls.  My Mother felt terrible and mentioned it often over the years.  But we all got the message.  We were to take credit for what we had done, not how we were born.   Pretty good lesson actually.