Hamden Hall Country Day School - Perennial Pine Yearbook (New Haven, CT)

Page 89 text:

PROCRASTINATION Have you ever tried to compel a keen and resourceful youngster to be in bed at a certain hour? It is a task. Every time I take care of Patricia Rowe, a ten year old master in the art of procrastination, I am forced to face this problem. Promptly at 8:45 I announce, UPat, it's time for bed.U Promptly I receive the reply, WUh, just let me hear the end of 'Truth or Consequence'.W It is not necessary for her to be in bed until 9:00 so I allow her to hear the end of the program. As the last second of the advertising is completed, I rise from my armchair, switch off the radio, and tell her, WOkey, up you go.H A grunt is the answer. Five minutes tick off on the clock, during which Pat feigns interest in Dorothy Dix and Elsie Robinson, and re-reads the advertisements. She eyes me slyly and queries WAren't these shoes awful cute?H Thus she hopes to inveigle me into conversing about clothinq, a topic which is good for at least ten minutes. I terminate the dis- cussion there. By this time it is 9:15 and my patience is wearing a little thin. npatln HWhat?U HYou know what.W WHunh?U - this innocently. WUpstairs, P.D.Q.N UWhat's P.D.Q.?U UPretty darn quick, and I mean it.N So Pat sluggishly mounts the stairsg five minutes later I follow and find her freckled nose deep in a NNancy Drewn mystery book. HPatricia Roweln HI was just finishing this chapter,N she apologizes, WI've only got a few pages to go.U UPut it away. Did you brush your teeth and wash?N WNot yet,W she says humbly. UGO do it.n