Chasing Birds and Building Sand Castles

I think after 65 years of chasing, I may have solved this puzzle, of why little boys chase birds and little girls only build sand castles…
Met an interesting lady in the club house last evening, she was upset that our park did not have wireless internet throughout the park. I told her I was also, and to be sure and relay her total disgust to our park manager Conway on Monday. But we talked a bit and she said she was at the beach and she noticed that only little boys chased birds and not little girls…She said why is that? I said well I guess they just want to catch one maybe. But I thanked her for the jogging my memory and the subject matter of today’s post.
When I was about 4 or 5 I will admit I was an avid bird chaser to the inth degree even…As my father would cultivate the field on his tractor and work the soil up fresh, lots of black birds would land right behind the tillage operation to eat the fresh worms that were being revealed to them…It gave me and endless supply of subjects to chase and try and catch…I would do it until I was totally exhausted, not sure what I would have done had I ever caught a bird but I do remember, really wanting to get my hands on them .
I will never forget (now that she reminded me) of one instance when I was doing it north of the house and Dad would encourage me from the tractor seat to just,” run a little bit faster”, that I “almost had that last one”. Well he must have had a little too much time to think and the next time through the field he stopped and got off the tractor. He asked me if I really wanted to catch one of these birds and of course I said yes I do Dad…He said Ok, I have heard and I think it is probably true that if you go to the house and get a salt shaker off the table and if you can get close enough to get just even a little bit of salt on a birds tail that he will slow up and let you catch him…
You know I really believed that piece of info, and as a matter of fact I was thinking as I went to get that salt shaker, why the hell had he not told me this hot info before. So back I came armed with that salt shaker. Had I been a little smarter, I probably would have picked up on the increased laughter from the tractor seat but I was on a mission….I chased those crazy black birds and came close a few times to getting that salt on them, but never quite made it I guess as they all got away…But I did use a lot of salt there that evening, and sure dad got a lot of good laughs out of this little trick. I still believed him just thinking I needed to get a little faster.
Until one day I heard him share the story with someone else and they both laughed, I finally realized I had been dubbed…So yes, I know not why little boys chase birds to this day but they surely do and they surely do enjoy the chase…maybe it is to train them to enjoy the chases later in life, maybe that is it. And maybe the little girls being smarter, realize what is going on here, and is why they just keep making sand castles and out of the corner of their eyes watching and thinking,” boy this is going to be so easy”….Yes I think Terry Gross that I have answered your question…..Next trip to the beach I will observe and maybe pack a salt shaker…..

Ok tune back in tomorrow as I am going to post my story of Marine Boot camp. I was honored this week to join the Marine Corp League here in Naples Florida…I can not express what an honor it is to associate with men who have fought to keep us free, and know that God blessed them to return to us. When they introduced me I told them that, and also that I wanted to share my combat record with them, that it had happened here in the U.S. in 1956 in San Diego Calif., only war I was ever in, and that it was between me and the Marines and that I was happy to report that the Marines won the battle, and I became one of them.
Cpl. Jack
Saddle up we will be going to camp