Seventh Assighnment: Narrative - Past Experience

My Most Embarrassing Experience

Would You Like to Eat a Fire Cracker?

When I was a kid, I used to be an innocent, na­ïve and little bit naughty boy. One time I threw a stone to the car passing the road in front of my former house, I made my cousins and my friends crying because I punched their head, I climbed the tree and fell into the pond, et cetera. But one of the most embarrassed moments I still remember is when I bought my mom the wrong thing.

I was playing in my bedroom with my toys when my mom shouted my name calling me. She was in the kitchen preparing meals for the big family. At that time my parents and I still lived together with my grandparents and my two uncles. As a good boy, I ran to the kitchen which is separated only by a bathroom and a dining room. My mom asked me to help her bought pepper in the nearby shop. The shop is actually typically village-shop which is located next to my house. Well, pepper in Javanese is merica (pronounced as /mərɪtʃɒ/). I was a naïve boy at that time and I didn’t know what pepper is and what pepper is for. One thing I knew is that I had to buy pepper for my mom. I obliged my mom and ran into the shop. I told the seller that I needed merica but as I remember I didn’t speak clearly. At that time, most of the kids were playing with fireworks and mercon (Javanese for fire cracker). Mercon is a kind of fireworks that made from ammunition powder and packed like a bomb. The seller heard me said mercon instead of merica, and she gave me the least sized mercon which at that time called as mercon lombok. Without thinking further I paid for some mercons and took them home. I ran toward the kitchen and showed my mom what I’d bought. She spontaneously laughed at what I was bringing. She told me that she asked me to buy pepper instead of fireworks. But later, I came back to the shop and bought the pepper. Finally I played with the mercons I’d bought. My mom, my grandmother and the seller were just able to laugh at me.


From then on, I tried to always listen when someone is telling or asking me something. But, that experience happened when I was a kid, and still naïve, so I reckon that experience is acceptable. That experience won’t be forgotten.