Blast from the past

Have you ever wondered if the white tape-type of electric fence wire was just for show, so the horses could see the fence? It's not.

We walked the dogs up through the pasture tonight and saw the regular wire had been run across the corner, making a triangle. We naturally assumed that was the live wire(and it could be- we ducked under without touching it) and got to the corner with just two lines strung. I figured I could pull the white tape up, making space to go between and avoid the crawl through the damp grass. ZAP! J didn't believe me and tested it himself. ZAP! We crawled under.

That zap immediately sent me back about 45 years, to my grandfather's vegetable garden and my brother. Papa O told us that if we held onto the electric fence, we wouldn't feel it, and demonstrated. It could even be true, I never could bring myself to grab it to see. 2 tried again and again, each time Papa shouting to make him jump, and laughing. This grandfather had a strange sense of humor, and loved practical jokes. His youngest son is three years older than I am, so is more like a brother than an uncle. 2 and I spent a lot of time up the road with Chucky and 2 bore the brunt of the teasing, being the youngest. That's a whole other post (or three) though.

Speaking of being younger, I had occasion recently to marvel at young love, and not in a good way. Turning a corner last week, we saw a 'couple' walking up the road in front of us. I assume they were a couple but the guy was about 20 feet in front of the girl, and both were walking energetically, with stormy faces. We passed and looked back to see the girl had laid herself down across the travel lane, like Nell Fenwick across a railroad track. A car was headed that way, and the guy turned around to march back to her, but sadly a hill cut off our view and we could only imagine the dramatic ending. If only J had been driving more slowly!