Journal of a Living Lady #271
Nancy White Kelly
Spring has finally sprung. It is nice to get out of the house again. Seems like months have passed since being able to absorb sunshine on a daily basis.
Coming home from my annual trip to the nursery for summer flowers, I downed the window on the passenger side. The pleasant breeze twirled my hair. Pollen quickly attacked my eyes and nose, but not before seasonal sounds filled my eager ears.
It was enthralling to hear lawn mowers humming again, birds tweeting, and the rustling of leaves as squirrels catapulted from tree to tree.
Then I came upon an anomaly. Sitting in a greening pasture was a pontoon boat full of jolly boaters. One man had on an orange life preserver. Children appeared to be watching the fishing lines of dangling cane poles.
I quickly snapped my head sideways another time, wondering if spring was playing tricks on my mind. My second glance confirmed the first. An occupied pontoon boat was sitting in the middle of a pasture with no semblance of water anywhere around. Holstein cows mooed in a nearby field.
Thinking I was on Candid Camera or temporarily lost from the loony farm, I turned the car around. I had to return to that scene. Whether I drove a statute mile or nautical mile, I do not know. I approached very slowly this time.
Sure enough. There sat the canopy-covered boat filled with real people smack dab in the middle of grazing land.
It didn’t take long to figure out what was going on. Taped to the side of the boat’s hull was an orange and black “For Sale” sign. Obviously these were serious yard sale shoppers on the verge of a buying a boat. The mystery was solved, but it brought to mind another experience.
A couple of years ago I bought a Jon boat in a yard sale. Its condition suggested that it was the prototype of the African Queen. Buddy reluctantly drove it home, shaking his head and mumbling about my impulsiveness. Eventually he came to believe the little boat was a good deal after all. He even added a weather-proof canopy before parking it indefinitely in the grassy yard.
We did go fishing in the little dinghy once. Buddy and I often have sat in that boat in late afternoon while we discussed the affairs of the world. I suppose we are an equally odd sight to passer-bys too.
Albert Einstein said, “Logics will get you from A to B, but imagination will take you everywhere.” I have seen a fishing boat in a pasture. I am waiting now to discover a farmer plowing the ocean.
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thelivinglady@alltel.net
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