3-5-11...DUCKS ON A POND
I saw some Ducks swimming on a pond this morning on TV. Something came back to me that I would just as soon have forgotten.
There was a big pond on the other side of the tracks from my house as a child. The pasture was all fenced off. I could see the pond from my bedroom window. It was a very large pond almost a lake I think. There were some tame ducks that swam on the water and I was fascinated with them. I wanted to get close so bad I could taste it almost. Everyone knew about the old man who owned the land and mostly were leery of him. I can't remember his name to save me but then I just called him hateful. Every day he would come out of his house and walk all around the land and the pond carrying a gun. We would hear him firing the gun sometimes. Daddy said he was just firing in to the air and that he was just a crabby old man and that was the reason he was alone. He stocked the pond with fish. Why I never knew. He didn't fish and didn't allow anyone else to.
Call it what you want but I was just curious enough that I was determined to go and walk around that big old pond. Now thinking back I guess I was just as stubborn as that old man was.
I thought those white ducks were so beautiful and I got to thinking he wasn't feeding them and maybe I should take some feed to them. Daddy had chicken feed so I figured Ducks would like that.
It took me a long time to really get up the nerve to crawl under the fence and go over. I wasn't really afraid of anything back then but I had been taught to never touch other people's things if they didn't want me to.
The day I finally decided to go I tried to get Brenda to go with me and she flat said no way no how. It was winter and very cold but my mind was made up so off I went. When I got close I saw the pond was frozen over. I looked at those poor ducks frozen in the water and I panicked. I not only panicked but I was instant mad. How dare that old curmudgeon let those poor ducks be frozen in that water with no food. Awful! Well I'm just gonna go tell that old man what I think, I thought. And that's just what I did. As I got close to his house he came out on the porch with his gun. He knew who I was and he told me to go home. I lit in to him with everything I had and told him exactly what I thought of him starving those poor ducks. He started laughing and I got more mad and kept telling him. I sure didn't appreciate being laughed at. No laughing matter as far as I was concerned.
When he stopped laughing I finally got quiet and he told me to come with him. I said no I wasn't going anywhere with him. He finally convinced me to come look at the ducks. Since that was what I wanted in the first place I said OK.
This is the part that still makes me cringe and my face turn red. The Ducks were just decoys to attract others. They were wood! I looked up and saw Daddy running across the field. I think he was about to do something to that old man because he thought he might hurt me. Well let me tell you I did get hurt but it was my Mamma who did it with a switch later that evening.
That old man must have been impressed with me and my scrappiness because he told my Daddy to bring me back in the summer and we could fish on his big pond. I'm sure glad I didn't kick him in the shins like I started to.
