Blog 2678 – 02.27.2023

Call Of The Wild

I was a shy and reserved little mama’s boy. On my eleventh birthday my mom encouraged me to join the Boy Scouts. One of my best friends, Butch, now called Ric, had an older brother Mike who was already a seasoned Scout and Ric and I followed his lead. On a Saturday in early December 1961, I rode a city bus with my mom to the Sears store in downtown Chattanooga where I tried on a new Scout uniform in the Sears basement.

Someone had taught a mynah bird to say “Pretty boy” and placed it’s cage high above the boys’ dressing rooms in the basement. I had no sooner dropped my pants when the mynah bird began to recite: “Pretty boy, pretty boy, pretty boy.” That call of the wild made me smile and at the same time began to awaken my confidence.

A couple of years later in middle school gym class the girls were watching us boys play and I later learned that those dear girls had nicknamed me “Crazy legs.” That second little call of the wild more even than the first helped awaken the sleeping man who had been masquerading as a shy and timid boy inside me.

There is I believe in all of us a divine spark that is fanned and awakened by the wind, that call of the wild. We were never meant to hide our light but to blaze bright and shine. A mama’s love is a wonderful and inspiring thing but sometimes it takes a well placed bird with a well-rehearsed line or a chorus of pretty and adoring girls to make even a timid boy answer the call of the wild.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

Alias “Pretty boy”, and “Crazy Legs”,

David White

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fy0VBQd73hyIgkRo_l9vJPONsLFJRnrl/view?usp=drivesdk

This Masquerade

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1R5-c-k_0gnZbOG_SnavptWqxI6-IflTI/view?usp=drivesdk

One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish