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I found this on face book and it struck me as one of the truest things I have ever read. To often in this dog eat dog I find even myself cow towing to the one who can give me the favors that I want. But always it seems when I get caught up in the day to day existence and become embroiled in the fight for the almighty dollar, something will jar me back to reality. Like this little rabbit! Have you ever seen anything more helpless in your life?
Having grown up in the country, not on a farm actually, but kind of was, we raised rabbits. Or I should say Mother raised rabbits. That was back in the good old days when there were not all the nitrates and nitrites in the grain supply and it was a simple matter of letting the rabbits breed and then the doe would give birth and raise the babies. Course we would eat them, but that is what you do on a farm. But the period between when the babies were born and the landed on the dinner plate, we could play with them. At first they did not have their eyes open and were completely helpless.
Now, I must interject a little story here and this will no doubt make my sister Donna mad, but facts are facts. We knew we were not supposed to hold the little bunnies until their eyes were open and then we must be very gentle with them. Well, Sister Donna really loved those bunnies and she held one a little tighter than she should have. When she saw it was not moving she thought it might be sick so she took it and put it in a dresser drawer and covered it up with a handkerchief to keep it warm. And of course when Momma came home, she knew one was missing and me being the good daughter showed her where it was. I thought Donna should have been beat unmercifully, but mother used it as a learning experience. Good mother's do that, you know.
Oh, the little rabbit brings back so many memories. We had chickens and they lived in a coop out back, but they were allowed to run loose. One day there was a button with a string and the chicken pecked the button and the string stayed outside. Course I was inconsolable. Little note here; we were little ragamuffin kids running around with no shoes on and we tended to worry about some of the damnedest things. Much of my life was spent worrying about one thing or another, and I was the biggest tattletale you ever saw. I used to get up on the chicken coop and jump off and try to fly. I never could figure out why that did not work. I had a dish towel tied around my neck and everything! We ran up the road to Vincent's sand pit. Since none of us could swim, we got in trouble over that one.
It was always great when school started cause the ladies at the church would make sure we all had dresses to wear. And we all got a new pair of shoes. That was rather a mixed blessing cause I did not like shoes. Still don't. But it was one of those necessary evils. And we had to wear them until the weather got nice in the spring. By that time we had usually grown out of them, but everyone passed theirs down to a younger kid. Rather sucked that my older sibling was my brother. So I did not wear shoes for the last couple months of school. My God! If we tried that now the teachers would be aghast.
There were 6 of us little urchins and we all left our childhood behind with a different perception of the reality of the experience. I never tire of revisiting my childhood. As I recall, we lived in pretty much abject poverty. We did not have indoor plumbing until we moved to Hutchinson when I was 16. We heated with wood and pumped water in the kitchen. We took a bath in a galvanized tub on Saturday night. Seems like we had kerosene lanterns, but I recall electric also. That confuses me. We usually had meat on Sunday and Carp and fried apples was regular fare. Oh, dear, let's don't go there!
I have this little rabbit as my background on my computer so I can remember that I am not king of the hill and that there are people out there who really need me to be strong for them. But you know, sometimes I just wish I were one who could let some one else fight the battle, sometimes. I am getting better at it.
