Children have a weird sense for business--especially bored children like my cousin Bruce and me. It ,again, was summer. Bruce and I have great memories of long, hot summer days. The red dust was like fine powder as we walked bare footed across the dirt road. What to do today, was weighing heavy on our little minds. Then we saw it. The fattest old bull frog you ever saw. Bruce had the idea that we could open a pet store right on the side of that red dusty road and make a fortune. All we needed were a few more frogs and we were in business.
We took most of the morning looking in the places that we had seen frogs before. With a little searching, we found a few more. Man, we were gonna be rich! Aunt Opal had a big wash tub which was the perfect container for frogs. We place large rocks in the tub, put water in it so the frogs would have some, and set up shop. We weren't getting any customers. What could be wrong? Of course, we hadn't seen a car all morning. That could be the problem.
Soon our little minds were distracted to move on to some really important activities that needed our attention. But not to worry, we had moved the large tub under the shade of the old china-berry tree. All afternoon we played in the fields and in our favorite place--the big ditch. It was a hot day and we played hard. Bruce and I decided to rest in the shade and have a cool drink. We got our water and took it out to the old tree. It was then we actually thought about our frog enterprise. What we found was one of life's lessons.
Our shade had moved. Yes, the shade had moved! The large tub with our frogs was exposed to the hot Georgia sun. Instead of having nice frogs to sell as pets, we found baked ones. We had killed our business. The innocence of our child minds had been shaken. In good faith we had left the frogs with water and a shade, but we hadn't factored in the sun. Our first major experience with being responsible ended in the death of our business. It was a tough lesson for seven year olds.
It's me again, Lord, thanking you for allowing us to grow from our mistakes.
A little Georgia Wisdom reminding you that life lessons are sometimes hard and we need to stay focused.
One thing about this story that is really funny was that we decided to line up some rocks across the road (that way EVERY body had to stop!) Well, they did stop but they were mostly annoyed at having to get out of their truck or car and move the rocks themselves in order to pass. After a day of complaints to our dads, along with the death of our frogs ... well, let's just say that it was one sad day in Mt. Airy.
ReplyDeleteI really didn't count Granddaddy as being a possible customer for our frog enterprise.
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