I’ll tell you this. There have been times in my life when I have been in cahoots.
cahoots
plural noun | kuh-HOOTS
The dictionary says this.
“Cahoots is an informal word that is usually used in the phrase ‘in cahoots’ to describe a partnership or alliance for making or implementing secret plans.”
I associate cahoots with mischief.
My cahoot-ness started at an early age with the association of my siblings. I can remember one Sunday morning when my sister and I sat on the living room floor with the Sunday comics spread out before us.
In that week’s edition of Hi and Lois, the kids bathed their dog “Dawg” and gave him a haircut. We thought this was a swell idea. So we went down to the basement and shaved our cat, Fritz, with my mom’s hair clippers. Fritz, up until that point, had been a longed haired cat. I should also add that it was the dead of winter.
Sometimes being in cahoots can spell trouble. But, truth be told, I must have been skilled in the school of cahoots because I rarely got caught, save for the shoplifting incident at Woolworths when I was eight years old.
I’ve told the story before, but it bears repeating, as it is a classic cahoot.
My best friend back then, Jana, convinced me that I needed to give shoplifting a try. So we rode our bikes to the Forest Park Shopping Plaza. She instructed me to take just one item, stash it somewhere in my clothing, and then exit the store nonchalantly.
She went first and showed me how. She took a pack of baseball card bubble gum, slipped it into the front of her shorts, and walked out. I decided on one of those high-bouncing, baseball-sized rubber balls. Bright pink. Well. I put it into my sock. It was the dead of summer. I had shorts on. Then I left the store in a bit of a rush. But. Before I could make my getaway, I had to unlock my bicycle. I’d locked in on the way in, for you never knew who might be lurking around to steal a bike. The store manager came out and citizen-arrested me. My parents were called. I have not shoplifted since that day, some 51 years ago.
These days I am rarely in cahoots with anyone. I’m not sure if I have better sense or if I just don’t have the energy to go out cahooting.
Napping without a blanket is about as daring as I get these days.
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“I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.”
― Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
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“No man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them deliberately.”
― Michel de Montaigne
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“One mischief always introduces another.”
― Daniel Defoe
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The ins and outs of cahoots.
