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Close to Nowhere
By Linda Jones My hero! You
hear a lot of talk about how this current generation of teenagers is
spoiled, lazy, etc. (I suspect folks have been talking about how bad
the “current” generation of teenagers is for many, many generations!) And
I admit freely that I’ve said many, many times that my mother would
have beat me for “whatever” if I’d done “that!” (She never did, but I
was certain that at any moment she would.) I talk
about how I didn’t sass my mom without repercussions and I was a model
child in school, because if I carried a note home from school, I got in
trouble again at home. And, of course, I believe
myself, but then again, I’m sure my dad believed himself, when he was
recounting (endlessly) how he had to walk 30 miles to school and chop
ice three feet deep in the winter. The news reports on teenagers nowadays are mostly bad. Kids are killing kids and selling drugs, etc. Things do seem worse. But, then you realize you know lots of really decent, good, teenagers. While
my granddaughters and their mom were in Boston recently, one of our
neighbors pitched in to help with feeding the horses, etc. Jesse
is 16 and plays baseball really well for Potts Camp School. According
to what I hear, he’s well thought of by all the young ladies as well. I
digress though. Jesse was at the house one afternoon feeding the horses
and I needed to ask him a question. I walked over to the horse food
shed and we were talking as he filled buckets, etc. As
we headed out of the shed, he touched my arm with one of the buckets
and said “Stop, ma’am, ma’am, stop!” Then he pointed with the bucket --
straight to a really long, big copperhead, laying among the leaves,
right at our feet. Jesse had apparently walked right over the snake
getting into the shed and I’d passed really close by! I
immediately began doing “the snake dance,” while Jesse calmly went back
into the shed, got a hoe and chopped the snake’s head off. All without
screaming or doing the “snake dance!” (You know, jumping up and down,
flapping your hands around and just generally panicking at top speed.) Jesse
is as reliable as anyone I’ve ever met. He’s never forgotten about
anything he said he would come do; he’s prompt and really nice and
courteous; and he’s already done many of the chores around our house
that have needed doing since Pop got sick. And! He can whack a snake’s
head off with a hoe very, very well!
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