A Monkey's Wedding
When I was four years old, and growing up in South Africa, my close friend Kerry-Ann and I often amused ourselves in the garden, watching the wild monkeys’ antics in the trees above us. Our mothers would sit in the living room chatting and keeping an eye on us through the window. Little did we know at the time, that we were a great source of our parents’ amusement.
One such afternoon, Kerry-Ann and I were in the back yard having a tea party with our dolls under the trees, whilst the monkeys swung from the branches above us. It was a partly-cloudy, partly-sunny day and, after a while, a light rain began to fall; it was one of those odd events where it rained while the sun was still shining. In South Africa, this phenomenon is known as a “monkey’s wedding.”
Kerry-Ann and I become incredibly excited. What an opportunity! We would have a chance see the monkeys getting married! In our imaginations, we could almost see the female monkey, dressed up in a pretty white dress with bows and a lacy petticoat. The male would be wearing a tuxedo and bow-tie, and there would be lots of monkey guests. We were going to make sure that we did not miss out on this event!
We decided that, since monkeys lived up in the trees, we needed to somehow get up to tree-height in order to see this wedding. So, we came up with a plan to climb up on to the roof of the shed. Surely that would get us high enough to see the spectacle? We dragged the plastic garden table up to the side of the shed, and managed to heave some of the chairs up on top. From there, all we needed to do was grab onto the branch of a nearby tree, and hoist ourselves up on to the roof. We were so excited, that we didn’t realize the noise we were making in our efforts, nor the potential danger into which we were putting ourselves.
To our great displeasure, our mothers decided to come outside and check on us. After they spotted Kerry-Ann halfway on to the roof, and me about to climb up on to the tree branch, pandemonium ensued. I was immediately plucked away from our make-shift scaffolding and my friend’s mother climbed onto the table to drag her daughter down. Our mothers were shouting at us, but I cannot really remember exactly what they were yelling, since my main concern at the time was that the rain had stopped. The wedding was over, and Kerry-Ann and I had missed it. Simultaneously, we burst into tears.
On seeing our reaction to their reprimands, both women stopped their ranting and tried to comfort us. They asked us why we were so upset, and why we had tried to be so reckless in the first place. Of course, when they heard our explanations, they burst out laughing. I looked up at my mother, who was bright red and battling to breathe from her outburst. I would never understand adults, I decided. Kerry-Ann and I looked at each other in indignation. How could our mothers be so mean? We had just missed out on an event of a life time, and they were laughing at us!
It was many years before I could look back and realize just how much our antics amused the adults around us. The naivety of children, with their natural ability to absorb information at face-value, presents many opportunities for adults to find the reasoning abilities of the young, enduring and, at times, very funny.
One such afternoon, Kerry-Ann and I were in the back yard having a tea party with our dolls under the trees, whilst the monkeys swung from the branches above us. It was a partly-cloudy, partly-sunny day and, after a while, a light rain began to fall; it was one of those odd events where it rained while the sun was still shining. In South Africa, this phenomenon is known as a “monkey’s wedding.”
Kerry-Ann and I become incredibly excited. What an opportunity! We would have a chance see the monkeys getting married! In our imaginations, we could almost see the female monkey, dressed up in a pretty white dress with bows and a lacy petticoat. The male would be wearing a tuxedo and bow-tie, and there would be lots of monkey guests. We were going to make sure that we did not miss out on this event!
We decided that, since monkeys lived up in the trees, we needed to somehow get up to tree-height in order to see this wedding. So, we came up with a plan to climb up on to the roof of the shed. Surely that would get us high enough to see the spectacle? We dragged the plastic garden table up to the side of the shed, and managed to heave some of the chairs up on top. From there, all we needed to do was grab onto the branch of a nearby tree, and hoist ourselves up on to the roof. We were so excited, that we didn’t realize the noise we were making in our efforts, nor the potential danger into which we were putting ourselves.
To our great displeasure, our mothers decided to come outside and check on us. After they spotted Kerry-Ann halfway on to the roof, and me about to climb up on to the tree branch, pandemonium ensued. I was immediately plucked away from our make-shift scaffolding and my friend’s mother climbed onto the table to drag her daughter down. Our mothers were shouting at us, but I cannot really remember exactly what they were yelling, since my main concern at the time was that the rain had stopped. The wedding was over, and Kerry-Ann and I had missed it. Simultaneously, we burst into tears.
On seeing our reaction to their reprimands, both women stopped their ranting and tried to comfort us. They asked us why we were so upset, and why we had tried to be so reckless in the first place. Of course, when they heard our explanations, they burst out laughing. I looked up at my mother, who was bright red and battling to breathe from her outburst. I would never understand adults, I decided. Kerry-Ann and I looked at each other in indignation. How could our mothers be so mean? We had just missed out on an event of a life time, and they were laughing at us!
It was many years before I could look back and realize just how much our antics amused the adults around us. The naivety of children, with their natural ability to absorb information at face-value, presents many opportunities for adults to find the reasoning abilities of the young, enduring and, at times, very funny.