Growing up in the South......

When I was growing up in the south, it was traditional for a father to give his son a pen knife at a young age. The age varied, but somewhere between 9-12 years old. My dad was not unlike other southern fathers and at the age of 9 years old, my dad gave me a beautiful, pen knife with bone sides and was about 2.5" long. He said it would be useful for outdoor stuff such as fishing and was not a toy. He showed me how to use it. I was so proud that he gave me the pen knife, for about three days.

A few days later, I went down to my best friend's house, Rusty. I showed him my new shiny knife and he was amazed. Not to be out done, Rusty brought out his new, gray, plastic, jet airplanes. There was  three of those beautiful jet planes. Ooh, I lit up when I saw these wonderful toys. He suggested that we do a trade. His three jet airplanes for my pen knife. Immediately, I could see myself flying those planes around and they would go great with my little, green, plastic, army men. Sooo, I said lets trade.

I headed home with two planes in my pocket , one plane in my hand, and a big smile on my face. I started flying it up and down with the sound of a jet engine, vroom...... As I entered our yard, my dad was lounging in an aluminum, fold-up lawn chair. He saw me with my new toys. I heard him say, "son come here". As soon as I heard that, I knew that the trade was not a good idea. As I approached him, he said "where did you get those toy planes". At that instant, I realized that I was in big trouble. My little mind raced to come up with an answer. I had two choices, I could say that I traded the knife for them, which would have been true, but a huge disappointed to my dad and likely result in a spanking. The other option was to say that I found them, which he would not believe, but hopefully would not be disappointed, however I would get a spanking because he would think that I stole them. I knew that I had no good choice. So, I didn't do any of those choices, I remained silent, so silent, which was still a bad decision. He accused me of stealing the planes and gave me a big spanking. Then, he took the planes and tossed them in the trash. About that time, my mom yelled out the door and said............."Pie is ready"!

 So, it was a total loss, I received a spanking, the knife was gone, the planes are trashed, and my dad is angry at me. What did I learn? I learned that sometimes in life, you will end up in a "rock and a hard place", meaning there's no good choices, but pie makes things better.................  

Paddle over to my website, LeoLakes.com. I paint beautiful lake, river and bay decor maps. Folks are discovering that these decor maps are wonderfully unique gifts that become family heirlooms. Oh yeah, I hide things in the lake waters, such as a tiny mermaid/fish. Folks love to search for them. I call my maps, treasured maps because most folks have that special body of water that they treasure. My treasured maps make a great gifts for the fisherman, lake lover, or Lake house. 

As you can see, my maps make a great gift.   Click here www.LeoLakes.com for more information.

Just remember: "Life is short, get away from the big screen and get on a big stream".