Out on the front porch me and my two brothers sat
sipping a glass of Grandma’s fresh lemonade,
tangy enough to make your checks pucker,
sweet enough to make you keep coming back for more.

You see Grandma didn’t go for fancy crystal
or silverware and such, at least she wasn’t given it to us.
So there we sat holding Mason jars, with beads of sweat
rolling down our hands making our shorts all wet,
toes were moist too, no matter, no fashion show going on here.

Then from the road, like the Calvary coming to rescue Custer
came Grandpa, sending up a dirt rooster tail high as the clouds
as he drove down the long dusty driveway.
From inside Grandma shouted,
“You boys go meet Grandpa,
He’s got somthin for ya all.”

It was like my two brothers were energized
from the Lord Almighty.
They went jumping off the porch
like two coon dogs hot on the scent.
I sat a minute more; Grandmas lemonade
was still tasting mighty good
and Grandpa still had a stretch to go
before making the garage out back.

“Boys, what I gots here for ya all
is a yard game. Nows I know ya all
don’t play games like this up north. But as God as my witness
ya all gonna have fun wit it.”

There he laid before us a brand spanking new game of Croquette.
Grandpa was right; we never did play this before.
Off we went to the back yard to put
our New York spin on it,
of course not before thanking Grandpa.

Wickets and poles, mallets and balls.
Put that together with three young boys
having imaginations and nothing but time on there hands
well, what you get is “Commando Croquette”.

“Hey Robert, why don’t you read the rules?”
“Heck no Ronald, me and James got it all figured out.”
Yeah, figured out alright, I was afraid of that.
Let’s see, first came the holes in front of each wicket
filled with water and mud.
New rules of no boundaries came out of no where
so “sending” the ball had me running into the tomato garden.

That’s when all heck broke out.
There I was looking for my ball when
the biggest, longest, scariest black snake
ever to glide on Gods green earth
came a chasing me as if I was lunch.

My two brothers turned into sissy Mary’s
and went a running like chickens with their heads cut off
yelling as loud as possible, “GRANDMA!!!”

Most kids our ages have superheros
like Batman and Superman.
Grandma put them all to shame that day I tell you what.
Out the back door she came a running
with the look of a mother hen
in need of protecting her young.
I ain’t ashamed to say that behind Grandmas
skirt was where I was headed.

With never no mind she ran up to the that big ole black snake
picked it up by the tail, swung it over her head
not one, not two but three times,
like a cowboy about to lasso a hog
and then, as if she’s done this a thousand times,
she gave that snake a pop.
Off came that snakes head like a cap from a soda bottle.

To this day. You will never hear three young boys
at the top of their lungs, all at once yell
“YEAH GRANDMA”.

Copyright © 2008 Ronald J. Edwards