Wednesday, October 19, 2011

#4. Plate Pluggin' 'n Shoo-Fly Pie


It was going to be a battle they had fought before, with not very good results. The two white-headed World War II veterans arrived at Mark Bond's house with their favorite fishing rods in the back seat. Both men questioned each other about what a Shoo-Fly pie was like, and was it something humans would want to eat. Mark happily greeted, “Howdy fellas! I sure hope you remembered your fishing rods. I'm gonna whop both of you good!”

The two men took a seat on the porch while hearing Mark's warning not to trip over his two canes leaning over against the porch railing. As was expected, Pete spoke right up with all the particulars of the birth of his fourth new grand-baby. Mark and Bates could tell Pete was as excited about the event as he was about the first one. And trying to put the skids to Pete's revelation would be about as hard as storming the beach at Guadalcanal with bombs exploding all around you.

Shortly the conversation turned to the events at the recent Silver-Tops Seniors fellowship, last week. With a bit of a struggle, Mark changed his posture in the porch swing. Bates asked, “Mark, is that grenade fragment giving you problems again?” The answer came, “Ya. The army surgeons said it was too close to my spine and that it'd have to stay put. They warned that I'd have occasional pain with it, the rest of my life.”

Mark continued, “That talk that Blaster Jackson gave at 'Silver-Tops' really spoke to me. Like most of the rest of the audience, I was really touched by his tenderness about the teens. I didn't think he had deep feelings, like that; about anything.” Mumbled agreement came from both Pete and Bates. Mark continued, while rubbing his chin in a thoughtful way.

But what I really connected with, was Blaster's thoughts about the two kinds of pain. You remember – his physical pain – his Arthritis. And then, his mental pain – seeing the stress and confusion in the life of the teen he had cokes with. A buddy of mine had a pump implanted under his skin to feed medicine when his back pain got so bad. Scientists have come up with all kinds of wonderful medicines and technology to help control our physical pain. But they're stopped cold trying to find something that will deal with that deeper pain; the mental pain within our spirit.”

Bates was never a real talkative person, but spoke up. “Guys. I've started building a teenage boy – on paper, that is. It always helps me to write things down and move my thoughts around – get them sort-of lined up. I can think about things more clearly and pray better too. I've printed out the list I'm beginning and here's a copy for each of you.” All three men were looking at their copy of the list. “I want both of you to tell me stuff that could probably be added, to help build 'our teenage boy'; on paper, that is.”

The beginning list already included statements like, “1. unlike girls, boys enjoy loud, messy, flashy outside events, especially if a contest or food is involved. 2. boys are far more independent and want to establish their own rules, rather than being controlled by teachers, parents, and other authorities. 3. fashion and first impressions are rarely close to the top of a boy's to-do list. 4. boys have begun the lifelong battle to try to understand the reasons for the actions of those other soft-speaking teens that wear frilly dresses, and matching ribbons in their hair.”

Pete suggested another teen boy note: “teen boys are often seen playing hand-held video games. And I'm thinking the ever-present gaming may be cover-ups for painful family circumstances or the absence of a true friend that deeply cares about the boy's hurts – physical or especially mental/spiritual.”

The men grabbed their fishing rods and headed for the backyard battle, still wondering what a Shoo-Fly Pie was.

Each of the trio was seated in a chair, facing an aluminum pie plate about 30 feet in front of them. As directed by yesterday's phone call invitation, a casting plug was attached where a fish hook was usually found. The obvious task was to carefully cast your plug into the pie plate, without getting it tangled in the low-hanging tree limbs. Mark explained, “The first one who mistakenly gets tangled in the tree limb, has to be the first to taste my Dixie's Shoo-Fly Pie. You both already know that she likes to experiment with new pie recipes, and this one, I have some real questions about.”

The first taster of Dixie's new creation, we'll learn about later. A Shoo-Fly pie is made with sweet crumbs and molasses. Evidently the flies love 'em.