Scared Straight by Love

          I have said it often enough that many if not most have heard me- there is magic here. There is inspiration here. There is a creative force that lives here, and helps to bring about some exciting times and wonderful stories...I mean facts.

         I miss my Grandmother. My Grandparents were very special people who taught us so much. One was that outside was meant to be taken advantage of at every opportunity. The land is to be respected, no matter whose land it is or even if its the land along the sides of the road. Life, is to be lived. Love for each other is to be shared, and you look after family. These are just a few of the lessons I remember. One that I especially remember...is the time that Grandma was among the first to practice what is now known as 'scared straight'. Only this was scared right out of the woods right now no waiting, no hesitating no dilly dallying around. It was move and don't look back time..only we had no idea...........

         My brother and I were younger then. Young enough that we had been instructed not to go into the woods alone. Did we listen? Do kids generally listen?

         One day back when the paper was an afternoon delivery I decided that we needed to go and tell our Grandmother that the paper had arrived. My brother and I began the search by looking in the house, naturally cool inside even in the summer heat, but no Grandmother. We then went out to the garden and looked but she wasn't there either, and we knew she wasn't at our house so that left one place, The Bottoms.

         The Bottoms was a decent size garden down at the bottom of the hill. It was divided in half by a small creek. Grandpa had stretched twine back and forth across the field high in the trees, from that twine swung aluminum pie pans. Below that grew okra, corn and various other vegetables. That was were we figured Grandmother was. There was one problem. A portion of that same creek, that began with an underground spring, was on the way. Living in that creek was a large quantity of crawdads, crayfish or mud puppies, call them what you will. They were there, and they were a big enough draw to distract us from our mission. Grandpa had built rock steps that lead down from the path to the creek. The water ran clear, clean and cold. My brother and I made our way down the steps to the creek and began to do what kids do best--play.

        In the middle of crawdad chasing I thought I heard a sound. Standing up I looked around but I didn't hear it any longer. Mentally shrugging I again squatted down to watch for crawdads. It was only a few moments later when I began to hear the sound again. Very softly at first but growing in volume and intensity. I stood up and looked all around. It took a few moments of looking but then I saw it. Down toward the Bottoms, standing in between two trees and swaying slowly was a, shadow of something. It didn't appear solid, but it seemed to be on the ground not floating or anything. Then it began to move, directly toward us. The moaning and groaning I had heard moments before getting louder the closer it came. Only one word escaped my lips, "RUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

  My brother confused by obedient (then) did just that. He began to run toward home, not an easy task running uphill even when you are young and more energetic. He was in front of me so I, in m,y panicked state was almost pushing him up the hill shouting for him to hurry. It was catching up, it was almost behind us RUN! He still had no idea what was going on and why I was yelling to run but he ran anyway. When we reached the top of the hill my brother wanted to stop at our Grandparents but I told him if he wanted to stop and let that thing get him that was his business I was going home. He didn't argue but he didn't stop either going on the rest of the way home with me.

   We must have had the appearance of wild horses bursting through the brush, or wild, panicked, disobedient children because our parents immediately stopped everything they were doing and came to see what was wrong, especially with me muttering 'monster, monster! There's a monster in the woods."

Dad and our cousin went to check it out as we tried to catch our breath. It wasn't long before they came back telling us that they didn't see anything but to be on the safe side we should stay out of the woods for a while. I wasn't arguing at that point.

  It was only much much later when I found out the truth. The shadow, was none other than our Grandmother teaching us a valuable lesson. You never know what may be waiting in the woods, allowing yourself to become distracted and not pay attention to your surroundings is dangerous. When you're a kid and you disobey instructions.. don't be surprised if Grandma takes things into her own hands and teaches you a good lesson or two. And know that its all done in love.