2 Little Tarzans

When I was in the 5th grade, we lived in the town of Old Shasta in California. Old Shasta was a very small town with lots of mountains, meadows, small creeks, oak trees and manzanita bushes.

It was a Paradise for young boys who had a little imagination. There was one particular creek that trickled slowly down a small mountain towards the main road that ran through the center of town.

Along the creek were some very large trees. Wild grape vines were growing all over these trees. The vines evidently had been growing there for a very long time, because there were many long vines hanging down from up near the tops of the trees.

One of our heroes at that time was a muscle bound strong man named Tarzan. Every boy that I knew wanted to be like Tarzan and live in the jungle. We practiced the Tarzan yell and beat our chests daily. When alone, I would talk to the animals in my life; a cat, a dog, a pig and three weird looking chickens. None of them ever answered back with anything that I could interpret, but I imagined that some day I would be able to speak cat, dog, pig and chicken and maybe a little elephant. Mom alread said we acted like monkeys.

A few of us would go to the creek a couple of times a week and swing across using the long hanging grape vines. As we flew through the air we would give the best Tarzan yell that we could produce. It was fun and exciting and took our minds off the problems of the day.

Lesson Learned

I learned that all of us need heroes to imitate in our lives. The wise thing to do is to choose heroes that are "good" people and who inspire us to do our best and to be kind and friendly to those around us. I have had many heroes in my life time. My greatest hero is my brother, Jesus Christ.

However, once in awhile as I am driving down the Freeway alone, I let forth with a tarzan yell that would make even the monkeys of the world feel at home. And then I remember how much fun it was to be a kid . . . in Old Shasta, California.