bag for marbles

When I was in grade school, I'll take a guess at eight years of age, my mother made a marble bag for me. Us boys would play marbles at school and if you played "Pots" for "keeps" and you were any good, you had to store all your winnings, which consisted of other kids marbles. I remember having a lot of marbles and I must have mentioned to my mom that I didn't have a bag for my marbles so she took a sturdy piece of material and some thread, and with her sewing machine she made a bag for me.

This bag wasn't fancy, it didn't have anything so luxurious as a drawstring but it did the job. The marbles eventually were placed in a glass top Mason jar and the bag was laid aside. I still have it.

A few years ago when I started archery hunting for deer I needed a distinctive place to put my paperwork when I went to the timber; my license and deer tag (an adhesive backed printed label in Illinois and a piece of paper with your name written on it in Indiana). The funny thing is I somehow happened upon that old marble bag and I turned it into my paperwork bag and it has served me well for the last ten or so years.

The bag goes in a pack with various knives, calls, a drag rope, flashlight, and other sundry items and it has faithfully performed well in all kinds of weather. I got to thinking recently, how many things does a person own that you have as a child, and you're still using in some manner when you're an old man? That bag has to be somewhere around 45-50 years old

What do I have that dates back to my childhood? I don't have my first Bible, although I still have a Bible concordance I bought when I was in junior high. I have a few odds and ends that I bought in high school that I still own. That marble bag may be the oldest piece of personal property I own and still use, not counting of course family heirlooms or antiques. What a throwaway culture we have become.

Funny things is, I'm not sentimental about the bag. I could throw it away today. But why? It's still doing the job.

cafeterias

Why is it that older people like cafeterias? Last night MKH and I spent the evening with an older couple that we know from our faith community. When we were discussing where to eat our evening meal the older gentleman suggested a local cafeteria.

I never think of going to a cafeteria. Cafeterias have never been an option for me except when I am in the company of an older person and they suggest it.

Some observations about cafeterias:
1. They do a good job with meat.

2. They do a good job with fried things.

3. They do a lousy job with gravy. "Practice saying, "Hold the gravy" on your way to the cafeteria. The servers are quick to the punch so you might want to say it as soon as you walk in the door. Keep saying, "Hold the gravy." "Hold the sauce, too."

4. The serving spoons are enormous. This means...
The portions are enormous. In one fell swoop there are more green beans on my plate than I usually eat in a week.

5. The servers slapping food on your plate move quickly. Before you have a chance to say, "Hold the gravy" you have an olympic size swimming pool of gravy on your plate.

6. Cafeterias are not the healthiest places to eat, with all the gravy, sauce, buttered beans, breading, fried things, desserts, etc. However, you should take encouragement from the fact that you are eating there with an older person, so the food must not be too unhealthy or they wouldn't be sitting across from you.

7. The company is great. That's the best part of eating at a cafeteria. You have the opportunity to participate in a conversation with a person who has a wealth of life experience. Here is a person with real wisdom, and a connection with history. This person has been there, done it, and lived to tell about it.

8. Cafeterias don't have televisions to distract, or fancy wall decor, the focus is on the people. I have always found the service to be great, in fact the servers pretty much dote on you.

9. And finally, at cafeterias, unlike school cafeterias I ate in while growing up, you don't have to scrape your uneaten food (and all that gravy) off your plate into the trash.

if only I had a movie camera

As I tromped across the snow covered cornfield, in the dark, I had no idea that I would be treated to one of the greatest nature shows I have ever seen. It had been extremely hard to haul my aching, sleep deprived body out of bed at 4:30 a.m. I was hoping it would be raining, like the forecast said, so I wouldn't have to go hunting. "Have to go hunting", I must have really been tired to think like that.

It was a perfect morning. What little wind there was came from a favorable direction. There was snow on the ground. The deer had had a week to rest up from shotgun season. It was now the first morning of muzzle loading season.

I got in the treestand and became still. As legal shooting light arrived, so also did a buck, eating berries off a bush, taking a drink from the creek. He messed around for about five minutes getting as close as 10 and 15 yards from me. He wasn't teasing, just lingering, but he was safe. In the dim light I couldn't see my sights well enough to get off an accurate shot.

Next, a group of four, a doe with ....triplets? Maybe. They were close enough, at 10 yards, still there wasn't enough light for me to feel comfortable. And, after all, a mother that can take care of triplets deserves a pass.

A half hour later, with more than adequate light, a large doe came tearing out of the cornfield and through the woods, leaping over logs, crashing through the creek. I started whistling, trying to get her to stop and perk up her ears. Deer are curious, you know. Nothing doing, she was scared. What was the problem? Then I saw him, hunting alone. A coyote. Running and watching and strategizing. The doe stopped eight yards from my tree and looked back at the coyote. She had no idea there was a gun pointed at her ribs. Off she went running to the southwest. With the doe off and running I swung around and the coyote now had a gun pointed at him. He tried to cut her off. It looked like she escaped...for the moment.

A half hour later I heard an animal coming from behind me making a strange bleating noise. It was a young deer, a yearling, bleating for it's mother. It was about 20 yards away. I see deer that size that hunters bring in to the check in station. Still, I'm not so desperate as to shoot a baby crying for its mother.

Another half hour or so goes by and I saw a group of three does coming my direction about 150 yards away. They walked toward the field, then back to the creek. They did this two or three times. Finally it looked like they were moving away from me. I began to grunt (using a special apparatus designed for this, of course). They got curious and start coming toward me. Occasionally they would look my direction, apparently they were trying to spot the buck that was grunting. They veered off to the side of me and in the line of three passing by at 60 yards it seemed the middle one was the best to fill my tag.

I saw four more deer before I had mine loaded in the truck. Two just walked in on me and got within 15 yards before they turned tail and ran. I've never had a day in the woods quite like this one. I saw at least 11 deer.

frail

Weak and fragile they are, standing there, every person putting them under the microscope. They are people, just people, mistake prone, foolish at times, unable to let their guard down and yet their guard is down. All their garbage and dirt examined, every choice for a lifetime second-guessed. Today all of our political candidates seem so frail to me.

Can anyone lead this nation that is so divided, so selfish, so self destructive? Is there a way to throw them all back and try out a new batch? Iowa, Iowa, Iowa we hear so much about Iowa and yet isn't that two months away?

One nation wants to develop a nuclear weapon so they can wipe out another nation. Have they considered anything even so simple as prevailing winds and where the nuclear fallout might land? Can any of our political candidates deal with crazy rulers, wicked rulers, power hungry rulers, greedy rulers, satanic rulers, or even just frail, fearful obsessive rulers?

We will need a leader with strength. We need a leader who is good at the very core of their being. We need to pray.