The rule at my school was, "Turn out the lights when you're leaving the restroom." I had only recently learned that the potty was not called the potty at school, but the restroom. I didn't catch on to that until a kind friend, age 7, spelled it out to me!
Well, potty or restroom, I was determined to keep the rule and turn out the lights after I left, because there was no one in there but me, and they would know that I had been the one to leave the lights on if I forgot. "Turn out the lights. Turn out the lights," I chanted in my head while I washed my hands and dried them. I flicked off the light switch.
A gasp of protest rose up behind me from a group of first-grade girls who had entered the restroom while I was in the stall! I was horrified by my mistake and quickly flicked the switch back on.
I don't remember the name of the teacher who was supervising the other little girls, but bless her heart for not being hard on me. "Please leave the lights on when other people are in here," she told me calmly. I nodded and made my getaway, never to make that mistake again . . . until I was 19 and turned off a reading lamp in a living room when I was finished reading, never noticing that the lady of the house had joined me and was using the light herself.
"LET ALL THINGS BE DONE DECENTLY AND IN ORDER."