Manure Happens

Ann: I just hung up with my cousin Cindy. We were reminiscing about when we were kids. I always thought my aunt was the coolest, but the more I hear from Cindy about her mom, the more I wonder if we’re talking about the same woman.

Pam: A kid’s perspective on their parents is always very different than anyone else’s. I keep telling my kids that the permissive and fun-loving man who is their grandfather is NOT the man who raised me.

Ann: Won’t it be fun when we’re permissive and fun-loving?

Pam: Hey, we already are, we’re just wise enough not to let our kids see it.

Ann: Apparently, I got my wisdom from my aunt. Cindy was telling me that she and her brothers and sister used to absolutely hate working in the garden when they were kids. But their mom counted on the vegetables to help feed their large family so they had to pitch in.

Pam: I love gardening but according to my kids, I only grow “useless” flowers.

Ann: So one year my aunt told the kids that the circus was in town. She said if they were good and helped in the garden all week without complaining, she’d take them into town on Saturday to see the clowns and animals.

Pam: Sounds pretty cool to me.

Ann: Just wait….So Cindy and the other kids were very excited and gave her the most enthusiastic help they ever had. They spent the week weeding, hoeing, picking, and watering. Cindy’s brother even suggested they whistle or sing while they work just to cinch the deal.
Pam: The old ‘whistle while you work’ bit… had they just seen Snow White?

Ann: When Saturday came, true to her word, she loaded up all the kids into the station wagon and drove into town. As the huge striped tent got closer, the kids got more excited, until their mom drove right past the parking area and around to the back of the circus.

Pam: That’s odd!

Ann: She told the kids she’d made an arrangement with the animal trainer for them to see the elephants up close.

Pam: How fun! I guess the whistling paid off! I should start whistling at the office. Maybe I could get a raise.

Ann: Knowing the men where you work, they’d probably think you were flirting. But that could have the same result. Go for it.

So anyway, they jump out of the station wagon and their mom calls them around to the back of the car where she’d opened the hatch back. Cindy thought maybe it was full of rejected veggies from the garden to feed the animals.

Pam: That was a good idea.

Ann: But there were only a couple of huge galvanized tubs and a pile of shovels.

Pam: Ohhhh…I don’t like the sound of this…

Ann: Yep. Turns out, the arrangement with the trainer was to come and “remove” all the elephant dung for her garden. Cindy and the other kids spent hours scooping the poop.

Pam: But she said she’d take them to the circus.

Ann: Technically she did. She never said she’d take them to see the circus she’d said she’d take them to see the animals and clowns. And they did see them. The performers all waved to my cousins as they paraded passed them into the back flap of the tent for the show.