Sissies Live Longer!

Artist Trading Card by Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee... 'Muriel, the Mermaid'... I have this ATC card in an album for Taban, my grandson.  I have an ATC card for McKenzie...  This folds up to fit the card.....

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Sissies Live Longer!

By Gloria Faye Brown Bates/aka Granny Gee



I was running fast, I jumped into the helicopter.  There was so much room around me sitting there.  The doors stayed opened, I held on to the handle by the doorway.

The pilot began lifting the helicopter into the air, I felt the wind blowing on my face, sweeping my hair back.  Oh, what a glorious feeling!  I felt free... free as the wind!

I looked down onto the treetops, all was so clear!  How beautiful the scenery was!  I could see water down below... I did feel a little tingle of fear.... don't crash, helicopter, don't crash!

The pilot began to follow a river of water, he came down closer to the water... there was something moving in the ... oh my!  There were dolphins swimming along in the water!  Dolphins with kind, gentle faces!

We followed, hovering from time to time, to watch these gentle creatures as they moved gracefully in the water, all in a single line....  I woke up.  I woke up disappointed not to get to follow along to  see where the dolphins went....

Dreams...  dreams seem so real!  It's like you are actually living, doing the impossible in them.  In this dream, I was happy though, just a little nervous.  One never knows if a helicopter is going to crash!  :)))

I 'know' there was so much more to my dream than that... I wish I could remember it.  I should have jotted things down on one of the notebooks I have laying around.  I'm glad this wasn't a scary dream...

I was thinking about the last time I was on a helicopter... I was in Miami Beach, Florida.  I got to fly out over the ocean, I saw something that I will never forget.  If everyone had seen it, too.... no one would be swimming in there again!

I couldn't believe the many sharks that swam close to the beaches ... close to the people playing, swimming in the water.  I thought about the time when I was a little girl... when my father, stepmother took us to the beach... they made my two sisters come back close to the sand... they never called me back!

Sharks!  Maybe they hoped a shark would get me, solve their problem of child support, and having to care for me ... they already had two little beautiful girls... they didn't need another one.  :)))

I think back to the insurance policy that was on me from the time I was a baby.... Shark, why didn't you get me as a little girl?  After what I saw on that helicopter, I know sharks were close by!  Maybe all this was my imagination... maybe they wanted this little girl to cherish, to love, to care for just as they did the other two.  I wish I could believe that.

I never had the nerve to want to try surfing, never.  I've never wanted to fish with the alligators ( I give credit to my brother that fishes with the alligators ).  I just never wanted to offer myself up as a possible food source ... something might come along, take me seriously.

Anything with a bigger mouth than I have, you have ... wherever they are at, I don't want to be near by when they are hungry.  Have you ever thought about it?  Something with a bigger mouth than you could eat you up!

The closest I came to experiencing a 'shark attack' came when I was a young woman.  I had waded out into the water.  I had on a long skirt down to my ankles ... I loved to walk on the beach, feel the wind blow my skirt, hair, twirl around... feel free!

I waded into the water to mid-thigh.  I was holding my skirt up, unsuccessfully trying to keep it dry.  I felt something bump me hard on my right thigh, it hurt.  I looked down ... there was a shark about three to four feet long.

I turned to run out of that water... somehow, I was out of it fast!  It may have not been the biggest shark... but..... it didn't take a shark bigger than that to convince me .... to stay out of the water!

My Grandma Alma used to tell me, "if you play with fire, you are going to get burned by fire!"  I thought to myself, if I keep putting me into the shark's territory, I'm going to get bitten... or be had for supper!  It's like sprinkling food into the fish tank.... something's going to eat it.

I only go in the water up to my ankles, let the waves splash.  I still keep an eye out... one can still get bitten doing that!  To those who scoff at me for being a sissy .... :)))  I don't mind ... sissies live longer!  :)))