Here’s another incident I remember.  We had moved from the apartment into a house with a backyard, walking distance to my school.  This must have happened when I was around six or seven years old.  I would walk to and from school with my best friend, and my parents were taking child-abduction precautions like making me memorize my phone number and address,  having my finger prints cataloged at the local police office and telling me never to get into a car with a stranger.

Well, they decided to see if their lessons sunk in, and they sent a friend of theirs, whom I’d never met, to try and “give me a ride home”.  She pulled up beside me in her car, popped open the passenger door, addressed me by name and asked if I wanted a ride home.

I remember the incident and how smiling and friendly this lady was, and I remember the complete lack of danger around the whole thing.  This was not how I imagined kidnapping would be like.  I thought, “Well, getting kidnapped isn’t scary at all!”  But of course I obeyed my lessons and refused to get into her car.

Check out what I said:

Note also, my financial advice.  Seriously, you should always have money for chocolate milk.  What the hell, Dorie? 😀