Saturday Sharing, Story From The Past! #20

Good morning and Happy Saturday everyone! It is a beautiful morning here today, the sun is shining, well sort of anyway. Smoke is once again moving in from the west and has now blocked the sun giving things that weird orange like glow out there. But I am sure it will not be long and the sun will be gone completely from that smoke.

The smoke is from forest fires out in the western part of Canada, about a thousand miles from here (about 1600km), give or take a few miles/km. Reminds me of a time that dad and I were out looking for old bottles. Yep, no insulators this time, I had finally convinced dad to come with me to an old place to dig for antique bottles instead.

Hard to believe they are trying again, says GPS the chipmunk.

It was a very smoky day, but the forest fires were in our area, though not that close to where we lived. It was a nice warm day, we packed up our stuff, including a lunch and off we went. Dad made sure to pack his own lunch this time. For some reason he did not trust me to do it. Very strange. We drove as far as we could on this old road, more of a trail really, then parked the car and began our walk.

“It is not far from here,” I said. “You said that last time we went digging bottles,” he said, “and it took us a whole hour to get there.” “A slight miscalculation that time,” I assured him, “this time it really is not far. There is a small bridge coming up, but it is solid.” “I have heard that before too,” said dad. Not sure what he meant by that.

They must be crazy, says Jasper the red squirrel.

We got to the spot where the bridge was supposed to be, but the beavers had put a dam across the creek and flooded the area, including that little bridge. “The bridge is likely still there,” I said. I continued walking through the water which was not deep. Dad watched. “Yep, the bridge is here, still solid,” I called back. Dad came along slowly. “My feet will be wet all day now,” he said.

He got to the bridge. “Does not look too solid to me,” he said. “Sure it is, watch,” I said and jumped. Of course, jumping in water does create quite a splash and for some reason it mostly went in dad’s direction. “I am soaked!” he yelled. “Oh, you are just a bit wet, not soaked,” I said. Dad sighed. He did that a lot when we were together.

Humans do strange things, says Baxter the blue jay.

We got to the spot, an old homestead and started digging around for bottles. Dad stayed as far away from me as he could, not sure why. I was digging in a nice spot and had found many nice old bottles. Dad came over to say it was time for lunch. It was just then that I pulled a big piece of metal out of the ground to get it out of the way. That also sent a lot of dirt flying off beside me just as dad got there.

“You are all dirty,” I said, “did you fall in the mud?” “Bonehead!” he said, “look at all this dirt.” He was trying to wipe it off, but because he was wet it was not working so good. I started to laugh. Loud and long. Dad did his sarcastic laugh. That made me laugh even more. He then suggested having lunch. “Good idea,” I said, “time to take a break. I have been finding a lot, what about you?” “Not much,” he said.

I agree with Baxter, says Gerald the goldfinch.

We sat on a fallen tree to have lunch. Dad started to pour his coffee. I stood up briefly which caused the tree to move just a bit. Dad tried to catch his cup of coffee, and he did, but he spilled it all over himself. I sat down again. “You should be more careful,” I said, “first water, then mud, now coffee.” I started to laugh again. “Bonehead!” was all dad said.

That was his word for saying he was enjoying himself. At least I think that is what it meant, he said it a lot anyway. He poured another cup of coffee, but he held the cup this time. I got up to get my thermos from my backpack. The tree moved again just as dad was drinking his coffee. He fumbled around trying not to spill his coffee but it went all over his face and shirt.

That got me laughing again. “That was a big sigh,” I said, then continued laughing. “Will you stop getting up all the time,” he said, “that is 2 cups of coffee wasted.” “Good thing you brought 2 thermoses today,” I said. “I am learning,” he said. “You do spill coffee a lot,” I said. “Bonehead.” he said again.

Hmm, I see this is getting quite long so I better finish it another day, perhaps tomorrow. Have a great Saturday everyone and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2023 Steve McLeod.