Dad Stories

Old people are funny. I stumbled into the kitchen this morning and my 81 yr old Dad cranks right up. “I don’t know why our mailman just can’t get it right.” Apparently the mailman had put the next door neighbor’s mail in Dad’s box.

I didn’t take but a moment before I was hearing a story about how Dad used to ride the old mule down to the mailbox when he was a kid. He didn’t have a saddle, just a burlap bag for some padding. “That old mule had big ears, kidda like my big ears. That’s why people say I have ‘mule ears.’ The ole mule would stick his ears up high and once I snatched a plum off a tree as we passed by and tossed it into his ear. He threw me right off his back and onto the dirt trail, then headed for the house. That’s what he would do…just head for home. When he got there my Dad would come looking for me.”

I don’t have any mule stories for my kids when I get old. Guess I’ll just save some jungle stories for them. “Once I was down in the Amazon and we were drinking Ayahuasca. Everyone was purging and then this thing jumped inside me….”