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[Fwd: SomeWhere ditch]



Been trying to get this piece out since bout 3 am, but once again my
primary mailer is having bo bo's. I'm sending from my secondary ISP now,
so please excuse if this message shows up more than once if the primary
comes back up today.

Thanks,

Herb

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Subject: 
         SomeWhere ditch
   Date: 
         Sat, 20 Jun 1998 03:16:22 -0500
   From: 
         Herb Harris <top_side at geocities_com>
     To: 
         nfc at actwin_com



Its not really a ditch now, just a dried up dip between the tire ruts.
Its only called SomeWhere ditch cause SomeOne cares about it, albeit too
late to help the small lives that were once thriving there.

        Bubba didn't know. Not that he would have cared if he did. Bubba
runs one of the big log skidders that haul the cut down trees out of the
clear cut areas round these parts. Its his job, of course! He just
thought the little ditch that was just big enough to maybe be a creek
some very wet day was the shortest way to haul the logs out. So he
started crossing it. Nothing new. That's the way he and all the haulers
handle the job. Just get the trees out to the road for pickup anyway
that's fastest. Just do it.
        Bubba didn't even stop to notice the slowly dring out mud slicks
he was making had life in them. Never crossed his mind. He was too busy.
Lots of wood to get to the mill today, got to make the boss happy.
Maybe  he would get that little bit extra in the check this week like
he's been promised. Maybe.

        The kids run away from the house to get away from the dust when
Bubba's truck comes tearing down the gravel road as he finally gets home
Friday afternoon. He got the extra! Now he could get Molly that new fish
tank she wants so bad. Don't cost a lot, but it all adds up, so he's had
to work harder this week to get it for her.
        Just he can't figure out why she wants him to take her down to
the creek back of the house to get fish. Yeah, there's fish there, for
sure. He's been fishin up and down that creek ever since they moved to
these parts when he was a kid better than 30 years ago. But why get fish
there, and not at the store like anybody with sence would? O well, Molly
always was a funny sort of girl, with her own way of seein things. Guess
this is just one of her ways.

        There it goes! He can't get that minner! Been wadin here 20
minutes, but can't get it! She finally says "Its ok daddy, I can do it,"
and she does. Slowly comes over to the water's edge and gently scoops
the little one that she wants up in the net.
        "Lets take them back to the house now so's they don't get too
hot in the bucket daddy," she says. And off they go, a first for him and
her, out in the creek collecting fish. But not the last. Soon he starts
to ask her if she wants to go to the creek again, and he usually goes
even the times she stays home these days.
        Bubba has been converted. He knows the lessons the creek can
teach now. Why? Because someone lectured him on the wrongfullness of his
ways? No. Because someone made threats against his job and the security
of his family? No. Well, What?
        Bubba chose to hear the words of his daughter whom he loves. She
alone in all the world made the difference. And a difference it was. Not
for today, or next week, no. The difference will last for Bubba's
lifetime, and some of his buddies at work too, cause they respect him
and his judgement.

        And Molly? She learned about the fish in the creek being good to
keep cause her teacher has got some in the class room. Miss Mathews got
them from a givaway deal when she joined a group of folks that want to
help average people learn about the fish and the way life is for them.
Molly wants to join it too someday, but just likes the fish she and her
daddy get from the creek together for now, cause she loves her daddy and
likes to do thier "creekin" together.

        The little creek that Bubba destroyed so long ago is no more. O
sure, there's water collected there every year, but its never going to
be the same as it was. Never.
        Good thing Bubba learned in time to go around some of the little
creeks and mudholes, or the whole area for miles around might have wound
up like the cities with the concrete everywhere and the pavement
covering over all the little runoff ditches.
        As long as daddy's love their kids, the little fish have a
fighting chance, be it in the cities, or the country, people listen to
the children before heaven or earth could move them otherwise.
        Want to save a fish's way of life? Teach a child the wonders of
the native fish, and the joy of sharing it with dad and mom.

Herb Harris

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