"...must have been seven feet tall with long, sharp talons that would rip my chest apart and eat my beating heart..."
Life in Iowa was pretty good. I lived in many cities in Iowa and always seemed to find the wooded areas in which I would explore. I loved to be out on adventures, usually by myself, sometimes with a friend or my brother Brad. The woods were like home to me. It bought a peace to me that I would often just sit, listen and observe God’s creation.
One Saturday I went exploring again. The wooded area I went to was very large with many hundred acres. This is where I would hunt squirrels or set traps for what ever I could trap. On this day I went much further than usual and got lost in my adventure, paying no attention to the time. The deep woods hid the dimming sunlight so telling time by the sun was difficult.
As I explored I finally decided to check my watch. Yikes! It was getting late and I didn’t know this area well enough to get home in the dark and I was not too excited about spending the night here. My mom would kill me. So off I went, back to base camp, which was my bedroom of course.
Well, here lies the problem- I was lost. Double Yikes! I continued to walk only to walk in circles. As I walked I began to hear things, strange things that made strange noises. Noises that cause a young teenager to get a bit scared. I would see movement in my peripheral vision. Triple Yikes! Big foot!? Boggy man!?
I then saw the source of the weird noise and movement-a very big owl. This thing must have been seven feet tall with long, sharp talons that would rip my chest apart and eat my beating heart.…okay, maybe not that tall but it was a good eighteen inches. I guess I wasn’t that scared but these kinds of thoughts enter the mind of a teenager with a very active imagination.
Then the sensible part of me kicked in. “Stop, and think.” I thought to myself. It didn’t take me long to figure out how to get out of this ever frightening situation. “Follow the river.” I thought. Duh, of course. The Iowa River ran down from where I lived. If I would find the river and follow it up I would get back home and maybe in time to see Laugh In.
So that is what I did. I found the river and set forth to find my base camp. It wasn’t long before I started to recognize things. Different area’s I explored, trees I climbed and mud holes I jumped in. Then sure enough, home sweet home.
I open the back door and my mom just happened to be by the door as I walked in. “Hi mom.” I said as I passed her by as if nothing had happened. She then spoke up and said. “Are you hungry? Dinner is almost ready.”
My mom never did know about this particular adventure. I thought I would save that story for a time when I was grown up and would not get that…speech. I don’t think I ever told her. Probably better that way.
When we were living in Winthrop Harbor we used to play baseball in the church's vacant lot across the street from our house. One day, failing to get enough kids together for a good game we sat underneith what was locally known as "The Skinny Tree." Glancing up for some reason a this very climbable attraction I though this would be a great day for a climb and challenged Steve his best friend, Tim, and the couple of other kids that had gathered for the non-existant game, to a tree-race. I immediately lept to my feet and scrambled upwards. Glancing back I could see the challenge had not been accepted and they stood staring at me while I settled onto a medium-high branch. As it was mid-summer the tree was heavely leafed so it was a surprise when I pushed a branch aside and found, less than a yard away... a white/yellow/black owl. It was securely holding to the branch with it's head tucked under it's wing. As there was no reaction from this approximately 15" raptor I scooted forward until it was in reach. Petting it's back brought no response and I eventualy grew brave enough to grasp it by the legs and pry it's talons from the branch. Now, understand, since discovery I had been shouting down to my companions and they shouting back with no reaction whatsoever from the bird. After retreiving the beast from it's perch I tossed it down to my buddies who immediately pounced upon it facinated to be so close to such a magnificent representitive of wild nature. After tossing it back and forth underhanded and opening it's wings to their full length and other general "scientific" investigations for a little while, mom called us in for lunch. Recalling my parental warnings about dead animals I told Steve and Tim we would have to get rid of it because of something called lice (which, if present we would have already gotten.) I picked up the owl and, to protect other kids from the dreaded lice, walked it over to the storm drain at the curb. I held the limp body over the little stream of runoff after thrusting my loaded hands through the open space between the grating and the curb... and let go. The instant the feathered body hit the water a mad flurry of feathers, thrusting talons and snapping beak filled the little space. The whole time the owl had been playing possim. Surprise!!
ReplyDeleteAfter a review of my reply you can see how spell checker makes me sound so much smarter than I actually am.
ReplyDeleteIn fact half of THIS may be spelled in what is only a remote sembelence of English.