FALSELY ACCUSED! (Guest Post by Linda G. Hill)

Posted on March 9, 2015 by cordeliasmom2012

 

Judge's GavelI told you all that you would be impressed by my newest guest poster!  I know I am.  For those who don’t know her (that’s not even possible!):  Linda is an author, mother, and the owner of the blog, LINDAGHILL.com.  We’ve agreed to do reciprocal guest posts today (I am so totally beside myself!) – after you’ve read Linda’s post here, hop on over to her site and read my guest post there. 

A Two-Fer!  Enjoy them both.

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FALSELY ACCUSED!

By Linda G. Hill

LindaGHill

I’m an honest person. I’m the sort who gives the twenty dollars of extra change back when the cashier makes a mistake  – the kind who would (I’ve actually done this) chase a car out of the parking lot waving a fiver at the guy who just drove away from the pump after having given me two fives stuck together. Also, I never lie. …okay, that’s a lie. I lie to my mother mostly to protect her. Okay, that’s a bit of a lie – about 50% of it is to protect me. But you see what I’m saying? I can’t keep a lie to myself… with the exception of my mother. That one I’m sticking to.

With that in mind, you can probably guess how much I hate being accused of lying. There are two instances that have stuck with me when I’ve been falsely accused of doing something, and then called a liar for denying them.

Going back almost half my lifetime, when I was in my twenties, I had a gym membership. I’d go in three mornings a week before work for thirty minutes on the stair climber followed by 20 in the pool. Oh do I miss it… but that’s not really relevant to the story.

There was one elderly lady who also came in to the gym – she was there most mornings that I was. I remember her mostly for the fact that she used to take all her clothes off before she’d start chatting with everyone else in the change room. Apart from that, I never saw her in the gym… my faulty memory makes me want to imagine that she used to come in to the facility for the pleasure of talking to other women whilst in the buff. (I’ll be handing out bleach for your brains at the end of this post, don’t worry.)

OldLadyAnyhow, one morning she approached me while I was getting changed–walked up to me as nude as you please–and told me I shouldn’t smoke in the change room. I’m sure my jaw dropped to the floor. You see, I don’t smoke. Never have. I explained to her, however, that most of my friends smoked and she could probably smell it on my clothes – the ones I was rushing to put on. (She didn’t have any qualms about talking to anyone else while they were naked either, naturally.) “No,” she stated, “I’m allergic to smoke and I know smoke when I smell it. You’ve been smoking in here.” It was then that I realized my gym bag had, just the night before, been shut in a room in which something had caught on fire. As unlikely as that story was, it was true. So I told her. Does it surprise you that she didn’t believe me? No, of course not. Thereafter, she kept her distance from me. But she watched me… oh how she watched me. To the point that I started changing in the shower before I got out.

The second instance in which I was falsely accused was in my teens. I’d taken an advanced-level Science Fiction class (which was an English credit) as well as general-level English (I was slummin’) in grade 12. In the SF class we had an assignment:

A nuclear bomb has gone off and you made it to a bomb shelter but you are alone. You have enough food, water, air etc. to last you the duration of your stay. You can take 10 things with you – you are there for 10 years. List your objects and write a journal, one entry for each year, including what you do with the things you have chosen to take.

Pretty cool assignment, eh? So I did that. Then, in English class we did a section on Anne Frank. We were given an assignment:

You are hiding from soldiers – you are alone and scared. Write a journal of the time you spend in hiding.

JoseRocoSo what do you think I did? What anyone would do – modify the first assignment to fit with the second one. Right? My English teacher somehow came across my first assignment, but obviously she didn’t check to see who the author was – who takes two English courses in one year after all? Especially if one was an advanced-level course; no one in her class could manage it. So she accused me of cheating. Not only that, she accused me of plagiarism. I wouldn’t have minded – I could easily explain it, but she made me feel so worthless that I was in tears by the time she’d finished with me. I have to say, I’ve never felt quite as much satisfaction at proving anyone wrong (I got the assignment back from my SF teacher and showed it to her) as I did that day, and yet it really did stay with me – that horrible feeling of being called a liar.

There are very few other times I’ve been accused of lying – in fact most of them were probably by my mother. Little wonder there. I haven’t had a lot of practice. Thanks for reading. 🙂

Bleach Bottle

Oh right – the bleach to get the image of a nasty little old lady in her birthday suit out of your head. Save me some.

– Linda

♥♥♥

Please visit me at http://lindaghill.com/

You can also read my fiction and poetry at http://lindaghillfiction.com/

Thanks so much Cordelia’s Mom for having me guest post! You can also find her guest post at my site! Come visit – it’s a great read!

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Images by: Rumble Press, and Linda Hill, and rekef (“edited” language added by Cordelia’s Mom for purposes of this post only), and Jose Roco, and Scott Ingram, respectively

This entry was posted in Guest Posters, Relationships, That's Life and tagged , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

59 Responses to FALSELY ACCUSED! (Guest Post by Linda G. Hill)

  1. Dan Antion says:
    March 9, 2015 at 7:59 am

    Great story Linda. I know that feeling but I don’t know why it bothers us so much.

    Like

    Reply
  2. LindaGHill says:
    March 9, 2015 at 9:32 am

    Thanks so much for hosting my post, CM!!

    Like

    Reply
  3. Hope Floats says:
    March 9, 2015 at 9:40 am

    Aside from little white lies to protect someone’s feelings, I don’t bother to lie. I am terrible at it, and the guilt suffered just isn’t worth it! My Mother is about the only person who always seems to think I’ve told a lie…Mother’s prerogative I suppose? It is extremely frustrating!

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  4. philosophermouseofthehedge says:
    March 9, 2015 at 10:08 am

    Great story teller! Enjoyed the read.

    Like

    Reply
  5. Paul says:
    March 9, 2015 at 10:44 am

    That’s actually quite funny -being accused of plagiarizing your self. That’s right up there with: I thought I was wrong once but i was mistaken.

    Great post Linda!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
    • LindaGHill says:
      March 9, 2015 at 1:27 pm

      Haha! Yes, quite like saying “I’ve never told a lie…” It would have been funny if she hadn’t managed to make me feel so worthless somehow. The adult me figures it must have been the lack of confidence in the teenaged me.
      Thanks so much, Paul! 🙂

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      Reply
  6. Doobster418 says:
    March 9, 2015 at 12:45 pm

    Ah, to be falsely accused of lying. Been there, done that.

    By the way, are you two an item? Is there something untoward going on here? Reciprocal guest posts on the same day? Hmm.

    Like

    Reply
  7. Marilyn Armstrong says:
    March 9, 2015 at 4:22 pm

    Sadly, a common experience. Funny how those things stick with me. I remember getting that from my father when I was maybe six … and I never forgot. I still can remember how betrayed I felt because I knew he was lying and HE knew he was lying. It was no mistake. He just didn’t imagine I could possibly know the truth (kids can’t tell the truth from a lie?). I hope I never did that to my kid. Adults are often quick to accuse kids of lying when they are the ones who are wrong.

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    • LindaGHill says:
      March 9, 2015 at 4:40 pm

      That’s a very good point, Marilyn. And I admit, it’s not easy to say to a child that you were wrong – you’re supposed to be the one in charge and in control. But it’s SO very important to do it. They learn what they see and what’s most important is keeping their trust.
      Thanks for your thought-provoking comment! 🙂

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  8. LindaGHill says:
    March 9, 2015 at 7:01 pm

    Reblogged this on lindaghill and commented:
    Today, the great blogger who calls herself “Cordelia’s Mom” and I tried an experiment of sorts – guest post on each other’s sites. Here’s mine – hers will be posted on her site as a re-blog too.
    Thanks to CM for doing this today – it’s been fun!! 😀

    Like

    Reply
  9. joeyfullystated says:
    March 9, 2015 at 7:10 pm

    OMG, if there was a lifetime achievement award for misplaced blame, I’da done won it by the time I was 30! Rawr!

    Like

    Reply
  10. Virginia Wagner Galfo says:
    March 9, 2015 at 7:13 pm

    Awesome post. I will definitely check out your “proper” blog.

    Like

    Reply
  11. Gale A. Molinari says:
    March 9, 2015 at 8:07 pm

    Reblogged this on galesmind and commented:
    Great blog I already follow Linda and am very glad I do!!

    Like

    Reply
  12. Gale A. Molinari says:
    March 9, 2015 at 8:09 pm

    I follow both of you by the way!!

    Like

    Reply
  13. A.PROMPTreply says:
    March 9, 2015 at 9:45 pm

    Linda, I loved this! What a nice change from your regular blog posts. Most enjoyable read! (Though am very sorry for both those experiences for you!)

    Like

    Reply
  14. Glazed says:
    March 9, 2015 at 10:19 pm

    It sucks to be falsely accused. Your story reminds me of a creative writing class I attended. One of our assignments was to write a deeply personal, serious story. I wrote mine so deeply personal and serious, it came out ludicrous. The instructor read my story to the class, and in the middle she began laughing uncontrollably. Then she began choking. She rushed out of the classroom, and didn’t return for about 15 minutes. I guess she was trying to regain her composure. At the end of the class she handed my story back to me with my grade and her comment written at the top. I got a B, and her comment was, “If you were trying to be funny, it didn’t come across.”

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  15. summerstommy2 says:
    March 9, 2015 at 11:11 pm

    Its an awful feeling I agree. How anyone looking at you of all people could possibly think you capable of a fib. Has me baffled Linda. Great stories by the way.

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  16. kim scaravelli says:
    March 30, 2015 at 9:23 am

    Ah… the locker room nudist! Now there is a topic that deserves its own post… you made me chuckle. Thanks

    Like

    Reply
  17. herheadache says:
    April 7, 2015 at 2:06 pm

    That feeling of being accused of something you didn’t do is the worst. And then when you say you didn’t and then no one believed you, what is there to do?
    Being accused of plagiarism in an English class, has never happened to me, but I can imagine how it must feel. Working so hard on something and being told you cheated.
    😦
    Those change rooms creep me out.

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