“Kids got the kites up this morning down at the schoolyard,” Dud said, slipping into his chair and flipping his coffee mug to the upright and fillable position in one smooth move.

Doc nodded and spread jam on his toast. He likes grape.

“Any special shapes this year?”

“Didn’t see any,” Dud said. “Same old diamond shapes, mostly.”

“Now back when I was a kid,” Herb chimed in, “we had box kites, too. Sometimes…”

Doc grinned. “Never could make one of them. Too complicated. Just got those diamond ones, because they came almost ready to fly.”

“Saw on TV the other day,” Dud said, “they got these kites over in China that look like dragons. Real long boogers, you know. Wonder how they get those things in the air.”

“Ever notice how you never see anyone on TV flying kites in Iceland?” Steve said. Steve has never been to Iceland, but he’d sure like to go. He reads up on it. A lot. “Wind blows over there in Iceland all the time.”

“I heard that, too,” Dud said.

“It might be,” said Doc, “that people in Iceland are too busy working to fly kites.”

“Could be that,” Steve agreed. “Do you realize there aren’t any dinosaur fossils in Iceland?”

He waited. No one asked. 

“The reason for that,” he said, “is that the dinosaurs died off before Iceland was born.”

Loretta came by with the coffee pot. “How you boys doing today?”

“Better than the folks in Iceland, I guess,” Steve said. “Doc says they have to work all the time.”

Having coffee at the Mule Barn on any given morning can be an unusual educational experience.

Brou Ha Ha

“Tell you kids what,” he said, sitting down and cutting off their escape route, “there’s more to lifetimin’ than jest gettin’ married, makin’ a buncha money and bein’ a success. Yessir.”

The kids had made the mistake of leaving the ice cream parlor by the side door instead of the front door, you see, and before they had a chance to yell “Incoming!” why … there he was … Windy Wilson. Some folks, you see, can’t live without food and water. Windy can’t live without an audience.

“I knowed that there look on your faces when you heard me say that, yes I did. And you was thinkin’ solemnly to yourselves ‘Why’s Alphonse Wilson sayin’ stoopid stuff like that there?’ Well, why have a happy, successful life if there ain’t no fun innit? Tell me that?

“Back a ways, afore you was born, there was a old timer named Jenkins lived up in the hills outa here. Oh, you heard a him? Sure you have. Know why? Cuz Jenkins was NOT married or rich or successful. But he shore as sugar had fun. Made hisself a legendary, histerical figurehead ‘round here, too.

“Yessir, Ol’ Jenkins used to come into town and catch up stray cats, one at a time. Bought him some cat treats, you know. And then he taken the cat doo jury and’d teach it to jump.

“Saw him do it more’n oncet, too. He’d sit that ol’ cat against his shins, like this, and hold his hands in front of the cat, and that there cat’d have to jump over his hands to get away. Then he’d give ‘em a cat treat. And each time he come to town, he’d make ‘em jump higher afore they got their treat.

“Afore you knowed what was straight up, we had us a town plumb fulla jumpin’ cats. And they liked it, too. So the morale of this here story is, instead of just doin’ what you’re supposed to, think about doin’ somethin’ fun, too. Kinda puts the cherry on the whole brou-ha-ha, don’t ya see.”

Brought to you by Packing the Backyard Horse by Slim Randles Available on Amazon.com.