Rattling the Bones posted 5/16/2008 7:20:43 AM | 10 kudos what's this?     report abuse

LaughTillYaPuke

I always wanted to be an archeologist when I grew up. I don't know if it was because the King Tut display came to America when I was a child, my lack of any fear regarding death, or my insatiable curiosity. I just knew that if I dug far enough, there was treasure to be found. Ancient truths to uncover. That surely somewhere, someone had found why the heck we do the things we do. And why it's all so stinking important. And maybe the civilization that this incredible person lived in did not appreciate them for the knowledge they had.

Figuratively and metaphorically I dug. My dads garden shovels left in other people back yards. Trowels in graveyards and rubbings of gravestones, with what I considered to be profound thoughts. I was the idiot that dug up long dead family pets.

It wasn't pretty people. KeeKee the cat was pretty much loose bones with a few tufts of fur to remind you of what she was in life. But, I theorized that she may have decayed into something else as she was the meanest cat who ever lived. Perhaps this is what happened to the evil. More research had to be done.

It was at this point in my life that I began to spend time at church. These quiet stoic people seemed to be the only ones who knew anything about death, good and evil. I paid attention in church, and THEY said that Jesus would come back to lift his faithful up and take them with him. I wanted to see just what the heck he planned on taking with him.

And I decided that I might be willing to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and savior if it would guarantee me the option of chattering my teeth and rattling my boney fingers at the non-believers when I died. Chasing them through the streets, and hopefully to an early grave. But, while I was a gambler, I was pretty sure that God did not have the same sense of humor as my dad did.

The neighbors dog was next, and that one bought me one hell of a whoopin'. I figured that if people didn't want their pets dug up, they shouldn't have left me markers to find them. The ancients figured that crap out. They knew how to hide their dead. But he wasn't in much better shape than KeeKee. In fact, he smelled like chicken left too long in the sun. Confusion settled in. I had liked this dog, and had never even noticed anything remotely evil about him. He WAS hit by a car, so maybe someone else's evil had touched him on the way out. Interesting. This was duly noted in one of my many spiral bound notebooks. (I would KILL to read those things again!)

So off to the graveyard I went. It was a good 4 miles from my house, and too dang far to walk to in the summer. But, I couldn’t carry a full sized shovel in my bike basket. (It was a really cool pink, green and white) So I packed myself a snack and loaded my basket with hand shovels and trowels. Basically flower gardening tools, but you had to work with what you had,

Now trying to dig up a dead body in the glaring hot sun takes perseverance. And I greatly admired the Egyptians for their tenacity. But while I was stubborn, instant gratification has always been my middle name. I took a break and had a snack about 6 inches in. And right about then a police car pulled into the cemetery. Now THIS lets you know just how innocent my heart was. I felt no fear and actually offered him half of my sandwich. (Of course I had already eaten the wonderfully soft center part. So I was pretty much offering him the crust at that point) He respectfully declined, but offered me a seat in the back of his car.

You have no idea how much I appreciated this. I was hot, tired and not looking forward to that long bike ride home. It didn’t take long, and on that last turn it dawned on me that this might not look good to the folks. Thank you Jesus that daddy was at work. But Steve WAS home. And while that police man was trying to convince me that what I had been doing was wrong, that bastard went and got the Polaroid camera. I will never forget the vision of him standing there grinning, waving that picture, “helping” it to develop.

He actually hauled that picture out a couple of Christmas’s ago. And I have to say, he took an incredibly good picture with that cheap camera. Me about 10 years old, too wide eyes, and you can certainly see the dirt on my face. But what made it great was that you could clearly see his reflection in the police car window, giant grin on his face.

Now I’m not saying I didn’t get in a bit of trouble for that. There WAS physical evidence after all. But it in no way curbed my curiosity. And I clearly remember sitting up after my spanking to discuss with dad what I wanted to get him for Father’s Day. I asked him to “wait right there”, and I ran up and got my $3.15 donation towards the present I had picked out for him. A metal detector. I had decided it was just what he wanted. How that man must have laughed when I went to bed at night.

I don’t think that I need to tell you of my absolute joy and wonder when he opened his Fathers Day present and it was a coin finder. And I can’t imagine what it cost him. But I will tell you this….It did more than deal with my curiosity of all things buried. It filled a need in me as well. Hours, DAYS spent with dad. Him swishing that pole with the disk back and forth, brushing the grass. Me crouched down, my butt hanging half way out of my shorts. Shovel in one hand and a sandwich in the other. Buckets of soda pull tabs collected, but 3 or 4 Indian head nickels as well.

But to dig and find treasure. To touch and experience the ancient. I STILL want that. And while I sit twiddling my thumbs in this small town, my soul screams for it. But I have found that I still have an insatiable curiosity. I cannot have unanswered questions. And some times I drag those bloating, rotting corpses out into the light, angry and irreverent. And most of the time I find that all I really need to do is whisper prayers as I lay their bones back in the grave. Learn to make my peace with the past and the dead. And I now understand that some things should remain buried. I just can’t seem to differentiate which ones those are.

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Blogs by LaughTillYaPuke: Breathe Body in the Road Always the Hard Thing to Do Blood, Sweat and Tears Coming to an End Elusive Thief House of Cards Gypsy Queen The Gum Tree The Age of Reason Felonies and other Petty Crimes What are You Looking for Rattling the Bones Spit In the Eye of the Devil The Best Damn Wayside EVER Coming into My Own Daddy's Girl Enough Already Trees Around My Heart The Mother Tree Colors The Most Beautiful Place on Earth Mother Barn In The Beginning TESTIFY!!!