To those of you who are veterans of our armed forces, we thank you for serving our country.
SOCCER SEASON. Boy, Saturday was the day for soccer. We had games at 10:00, 12:00 and 2:00. We just packed to spend the day at the YMCA, which included a picnic lunch and swimming after all the games. The promise of swimming kept everyone happy and excited.
Jenna has played goalie most of the time she has been on the field. Her team has done well, and she really hasn’t had to defend the goal that much. Ben has been placed all over the field, but he really shines when he plays offense. The boy has picked up on what the game is all about and is a player his teammates can count on when they need him. It is a complete turn around from last year. Poor Nate and his team are all off in La-La Land. Nate usually just circles around the crowd that is kicking the ball, occasionally making contact himself. I think his team has only scored once all season.
IMAGINATION. I keep hearing that TV is destroying the creativity and imagination of our kids. This is not so with Nate. As we were leaving church the other day he was carrying a rolled up piece of butcher paper. This was his art project from Sunday school (they put food coloring in bubble solution and blew bubbles on the paper). When I asked him what it was he told me about their project and then added, “But it can also be a telescope, a sword, a hockey stick,....” His list of possibilities for that rolled up paper was so long I just stood there with my mouth open. He named off about a dozen ideas without even batting an eye.
NOW HOW DID THAT HAPPEN? So I am mowing Aunt Mar’s yard yesterday when Will Haggard steps out. I stop so we can talk. Somehow in this conversation I find that I have agreed to mow his yard. He doesn’t have a big yard, and I didn’t mind doing it, but the whole time I am wondering how I found myself doing this job. He stood out there watching me the whole time, I guess he is used to using a push mower and was amazed to see how quickly his yard could be cut with a riding mower. I’ve been sort of chuckling to myself about it ever since.
You really have to be from our community to appreciate what I have just written. For those of you who aren’t native Cross Plains folks I’ll do my best to enlighten you. Will Haggard Chatman can best be described as our local eccentric. He is in his late 60s and lives in a share cropper’s house on Uncle Paul’s farm. He has been a day laborer with the area farmers for as long as I’ve known him. He is the only man I know of who will wear two long sleeve shirts and two pair of overalls on a 90+° day.
Will is very hard to understand. You really have to train your ear to follow him (sort of like listening to someone from another country with a heavy accent). The good thing is that he repeats himself...a lot. This is how I got into the yard mowing job. It was late in a repetition cycle when I discovered that I had agreed to mow for him.
I worry about Will. He hides a lot. Some might say he sneaks around. I don’t think Will would ever dream of hurting anyone or stealing anything, but I’m afraid that newcomers to this community don’t know that and would assume the worst. You see, if Will thinks anyone might see him he’ll hide. He was probably hiding behind a tree for a while as I was mowing Monday. One day Rita Read, a neighbor, stopped beside the road to pick some buttercups. As she tells it, she felt like someone was watching her. Not seeing anyone she decided it might be Will and called out, “Will, I hope you don’t mind if I pick a few flowers.” From behind a tree Will jokingly replied, “I’m just watching to make sure you don’t get too many.”
HUMANE INTENTIONS. This story also falls under the “now how did that happen?” category. Aunt Linda and Uncle Bob breezed in for a two day visit this week (they had driven up for Ginny’s graduation). Tuesday evening Vicki went over for a late night game of spades. As is her habit, Mom saw Vicki to the garage door when she called it quits and left for home at 11:30. That’s when Mom noticed this poor little mouse with one paw stuck in a glue trap. Feeling sorry for the rodent she attempted to pull it free so she could release it in the field. When it became obvious this wouldn’t work she decided she would tear the trap leaving a small 'shoe' affixed to the critter’s foot. That’s when the mouse fought back and bit Mom on the finger which sent her and Aunt Linda to the hospital for a tetanus shot. When she got there she was too embarrassed to tell the nurse what had happened so I figure that interview was quite a comedy in and of itself. And to beat all, her finger had quit bleeding and with no noticeable mark Mom couldn’t remember which finger had been bitten. Fortunately the ER was not busy, but they were still 2:30 in the morning getting back home.
We’re all just shocked that she was brave enough to reach down and pick up a mouse in the first place. Ben was certainly dumbfounded and speechless (his face was priceless), although Nate just wondered what became of the mouse. Jenna pretty much summed it up for all of us when she said, “Well, that’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard...and the dumbest!” (Sorry Mom, anyone who sticks their finger near a mouse’s mouth and then admits to later praying for the varmint’s well-being deserves to be written up.)
Joe
