My husband comes from a very devout Roman Catholic Family. His memories of growing up in his family have very much to do with being the youngest in a family of 9 children. In many ways he was "quite spoiled" as his brothers and sisters told me because he was the last child and his mother doted on him.
One of the events in a young Catholic boy's life is his First Communion. My husband's life was no different. At age 8, he remembers looking forward to going to the church, dressed in a suit and being in a procession with all his friends and school mates to receive his First Communion. Up until now, he could watch his Mother and Father and older brothers and sisters going up for Communion, but he was always left behind - to only watch.
The day before his First Communion his school friends and he were walking home, talking about what was going to happen the next day. They came upon a roofing crew spreading new tar on a roof. Remember that in the days when my husband was 8 - the idea of watching a roof being retarred was as exciting for them as watching a new video is for our grandchildren.
One of his friends (he is not taking the blame) suggested that they grab some of the tar that had cooled and was sitting on a wooden bench by the sidewalk. The tar was warm but pluable and they could roll it around in their hands and it wouldn't stick to them. try to imagine young children of today playing with Playdoh.. One of the boys (again, my husband is not taking any blame here) suggested that they make themselves a hat and wear the hats home. Great idea!
My husband went into the house to show his Mom his play hat. Except ... the hat would not come off his head. It had stuck good and fast to the hair at the top of his head! His Mother tried everything and the little tar hat would not budge. It was completely entwined in his hair and even stuck to his head. As a last resort, after using all sorts of ways to remove the tar hat, she had to cut his hair and he ended up with a rather large round circle on the top of his head that was bald.
You can guess the ending of this story. The pictures taken of his First Communion Class showed my husband (being the devout little child his mother loved) standing with his head bowed - showing the bald spot. His brothers and sisters loved bringing out the picture as often as they could.
My husband says he thinks that is why he went bald later in life - let this be a lesson to other little boys who play with tar!
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