When I was a little kid, my brother and I went over to our friend Lisa's house. Lisa's back door was wide open, which in our neighborhood means "come in, we're home".

We went in, and wandered all over their place, looking for someone. When the two of us decided that there was nobody around, we went back downstairs to leave. On the way out, one of us bumped into the glass coffe table in the livingroom. The glass top fell on the floor. Not wanting to just leave it there 9having been taught to fix our mistakes), my brother and I decided to lift the tabletop back onto the table frame. It was very heavy (I was five or so, and Andrew was 3, I think). When the glass made contact with the frame, it shattered. I don't remember if we dropped it, or what, but it broke.

Of course, my brother and I took off.

When Lisa's dad figured out what had happened (I don't really remember who told him, but I think Dad brought me over there to apologize) he was furious. He demanded that my father pay for the table, and told him that we broke into his house.

We wouldn't have gone into his place unless the door was open. Like I said, that was an invitation in our neighborhood to come in. What happened was obviously an accident, but my brother and I weren't allowed to play with Lisa for a while. I also remember Lisa's older sister telling us we were in trouble because she had been home when it happened. I still don't know why she didn't answer us when we went all over the house calling for people. I think she told her dad that so she wouldn't get in trouble for leaving the door open.

So, has anyone here broken anything while you were at a friend's house? Has anyone done it to you? What did you do, and how old were you when it happened? Were you a little kid, or were you all grown up?

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2000

Answers

I still feel terrible about the damage I caused on consecutive visits to my best friend's house, when I was eight. First, I tripped while I was carrying a small hand mirror that belonged to his mother into the house (I forget why we needed to take the mirror outside in the first place -- probably a "science experiment"). The front screen door caught my heel as I was walking in. I got back up, picked up the hand mirror, which was unbroken, and promptly got tripped by the door again. This time the mirror shattered.

On my next visit, I mired my friend's father's new snowmobile in a huge drift. It took a winch to get it out and it wouldn't run until the men tinkered with it for a couple of hours. My friend's family were all very nice, both times, about the damage I caused. I still cringe thinking about the mirror and how dumb it was to let myself get tripped twice in a row.

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2000

I was ironing at someone's house and the iron FLEW out of my hand (seriously) and landed immediately on the carpet.

Fortunately they didn't care much, as they were moving soon anyway.

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2000

God, this one is embarassing...

My freshman year in high school. I went with some friends to the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Since there was about ten of us, the guy who was driving (who, by the way, I barely knew) borrowed his mom's minivan.
I was the last person to be dropped off, so when the guy ahead of me got out, I climbed up into the front seat.
On my way there, I tripped on a pillowcase full of candy, fell forward, and knocked the rear-view mirror off with my forehead.
I'm cringing now, just thinking about it.

Animate.

-- Anonymous, July 20, 2000

Growing up, we had family friends who owned fishing/hunting camps in the Allagash. I don't remember going up there very often prior to the incident that got us banned for life; there wasn't much there to keep little kids entertained. (A fact that also goes a long way toward explaining what we did.)

My older brother was responsible for looking after the two youngest kids -- my other brother and myself. We were swarming all over the campgrounds. There was a man-made pond there (which, in our defense, I don't think we knew was man-made at the time.) Big brother started tossing rocks in; little sister and little brother followed suit. We must have thrown rocks in there for 15-20 minutes until we got caught doing it. Turns out we ripped the the plastic lining and basically destroyed the pond.

I don't think I was older than six or seven at the time -- probably younger.

We weren't allowed back for years.

-- Anonymous, July 20, 2000

The first time I met the mother of an important boyfriend, and stayed at their house, I managed to break the shower door. I felt terrible.

When we told her, she was unconcerned, honestly so. She explained that with three sons, things like this happened all the time and it really was no big deal.

-- Anonymous, July 20, 2000