tit for tat

I confess. It was on the early morning of December 7th, 1979 -I was a lad of just 15- when I committed the misdemeanor of graffiti for the first and last time. On my way to grammar school, I scribbled the rather bland “Eet meer Freud” on the pillar of a department store. Of course, I was promptly arrested by the strong arm of the law, whisked away to the police station, encarcerated, questioned and ultimately sent to apologize to the shop-owner and offer my services to remove the last trace of my vandalistic outburst. I spent the rest of the day cleaning the marble column with vim. The real challenge of course was one day later, when I found out that the local newspaper had written a short entry on the whole event. The Dutch custom of protecting the anonimity of suspects by just using their initials miserably exposed me. Coming home to my avid newspaper-reading parents, I undoubtedly used an ingenious ploy to make the newspaper disappear, hoping they'd read past the whole thing. (Years later I found out they didn't and in fact enjoyed every minute of my desparate antics.) Now, thanks to the digitization of the local newspaper, my sins of youth are there for the world to see.