10 THE UPSET CRAWDAD

While living on the goat ranch, north of Willits, California, my brother, Richard and I had a lot of time to do some exploring. We were camped right next to the goat corrals and barn. We were at the edge of a beautiful meadow; nestled between tree covered mountains.

There was a small stream that meandered along one side of the meadow. This stream provided Richard and I with many summer days of creative play and adventure. Life as a child would not be the same without sticks, dirt and water.

The stream was the home of hundreds of frogs, bugs, snakes and other creatures. One day we were trying to scare some frogs out from under a bank of earth that protruded out into the stream. Richard kneeled down and reached into the water and back under the protruding bank.

Suddenly, he let out a bone chilling scream that scared me half to death. I looked over just in time to see him jerk his hand out of the water. Firmly attached to his finger was a large crawdad. My first thought was that he had been stung by a monster scorpion. I'm not sure what thoughts were flashing through my brother's mind, but as he screamed and violently shook his hand , the crawdad let go and sailed back into the safety of the water.

I think we both realized at the same instant that the creature was not a deadly scorpion, but an almost harmless crawdad. In a moment of quick relief, we both burst out laughing. However, we never again stuck our hands down and under where we couldn't see what was there. I don't know why, but we never told our parents about these kind of experiences.

LESSON LEARNED

Life is kind of like that too.

Sometimes we must be careful not to invade someone else's space.