Learning at the Movies

Learning At The Movies

Sitting there watching the hero and his buddy in the little cabin having a shootout with the bad guys surrounding him I just knew it was his last day on earth. There would be no more Tom Mix movies because he would be gone. The good guy would be gone. I was devastated. I could do nothing to help him.

Some of the other kids around me that Saturday morning wadded up cups and popcorn bags, throwing them at the screen shouting and booing at the bad guys. I just sat there frozen.

Then Tom told his buddy something like a secret, maybe. Then they both fell to the floor like they were dead. The shooting had stopped. The bad guys began to sneak up to the windows. They looked in and saw the two lying there motionless. "We gottem! Lets go rustle those cows now!" They jumped on their horses and rode off in a cloud of dust.

Tom and his pardner ran to the back, jumped on their horses then rode a different way to town where they gathered a posse. As the posse rode out to the ranch to rescue the ranchers and their cattle they ran across the bad guys. In the ensuing gun battle all the bad guys gave up.

What a great ending. This taught me that there's always ways to win in all situations.

Well the next time I had a bad situation confronting me I thought and thought. Then it struck me.

I had eaten everything on my plate and drank my milk, but there sat the untouched poison turnips; staring back at me like a pile of venom, ready to end my life.

Then there were the bad guys, my mother, aunts and gramma. The ones that made the terrible rule that you had to clean your plate and enforced it with "SHUT UP AND EAT! CLEAN YOUR PLATE! SEE THAT HICKORY SWITCH!?”

All my cousins had choked down their deadly mass of venom and were taking their plates and glasses to the kitchen. How they had done that amazed me.

Then it hit me! I filled my mouth with the poison turnips careful not to let any get in my throat. Then I carefully let them ooze out of my mouth, down my chin and run down on my shirt. I closed my eyes and tumbled out of my chair-CLUMMP BUMP-while letting the poison turnips seep from my open mouth.

"HE'S CHOKING! GRAB HIM! HELP! HELP!" They were screaming out the windows at my dad and uncles.

They grabbed me and beat my back 'til I thought it was breaking. They squeezed me 'til I thought I would pop. They grabbed me by my feet jerking me upside down and shook me with my head banging on the floor in the dirt and tracked in grass burrs until I screamed to stop. They stopped and hugged me, kissed me and cried at me, prayed at me 'til I couldn't stand it any longer.

I let them think all these years they had saved me. I also learned it's not worth that price to pay just to get out of a dose of poison turnips.

Mark Crider ©2007

Story ID:	3579
Written by:	Mark Crider (bio, link, contact, other stories)
Organization:	Corpus Christi Coating & Machine Inc.
Location:	Stockdale Texas U.S.A.
Year:	1948