The Turtle

When I was in the Coast Guard, I had to drive down to Houston for my drills and active duty. On the side of I-45, there was a man who carved artwork out of tree stumps. One summer, I was driving down for my 2 week duty and stopped to see the gentleman about making me a turtle. He promised me he could do it in two weeks (to pick up on my way back home) and wanted to know what 'size' I wanted. Really? I went with a size 'small', seeing as how I was driving a Geo Metro at the time and the turtle was not going to have a comfortable place to sit.

Imagine my surprise when I pulled in 2 weeks later to claim my prize turtle and it was as big as a dog! He said that he could not find a small tree stump, so he went ahead and made me a medium one. But he would only make me pay the 'small size' price. OK. So $25 later and a completely rearranged front seat, the turtle was on its way back to my sorority house. (The turtle is the mascot of Delta Zeta.)

Very few things have been with me through my 14 moves in the last 16 years, but this turtle has. He now resides on our front porch, welcoming all who come through our front door. He is very useful in that he hides my mail packages that do not fit in the mailbox, holds up pumpkins, is used as a prop for pictures quite often and is a great landmark. Just tell someone, "we have a turtle on our porch", and they know when they have arrived at the right house. All I have to be careful about is when Mission Metroplex comes to pick donations up, we have to move him inside, so they do not accidentally think we are donating him. What a great pet, I mean decoration...