The Salt Shaker Tale

When I was about three years old, I began chasing and trying to catch the birds in our yard. My dad sang the Mockingbird song to me everynight, and in my mind, I thought catching a bird was something that people could do with their hands. No one put out bird feeders in those days. Birds were plentiful because the environment had not yet been saturated with insecticides. We did throw out bread crumbs and scraps from the table which attracted all types of wildlife.

One day, in 1949, my father was working on our car and had apparently been watching me chase the birds for about an hour. After many attempts to run up and grab one, I finally sat down on the ground and started to cry because the birds would not let me touch them, or even get close enough to see them. They always flew away before I could reach them.

My dad came over and sat down beside me and told me that the birds were much too fast for me to run up to and grab, but he knew of one way I might be able to catch the birds. He told me I would have to get the salt shaker off the kitchen table and very slowly creep up to the bird, making sure it did not see me. Then, quick as the wind, I had to sprinkle salt on its' tail. The bird would then be so surprised that it would just sit there and let me catch it! He explained that it wouldn't be easy because I had to creep up very, very slowly, and be very, very patient and stay as hidden as best I could, or the birds would see me coming and fly away.

I never cried about my failure to capture a bird after that. My dad had given me "The Way" and with great confidence and tenacity, I spent many hours, salt shaker in hand, trying to creep up slowly behind the birds to sprinkle the salt on their tails. And when my little brothers came along, I taught them the tale of salting the birds tails, as they got big enough to play with me. We spent many carefree days entertaining ourselves with those salt shakers as we tracked, crept around silently, and hid from the birds in an attempt to get close enough to put salt on their tails.

Of course, no one ever caught a bird with a salt shaker, but it kept us out of the adults hair, taught me good stalking concepts for later woodsmanship, perseverance, and above all, patience. At least, until I was old enough to understand that I would never be able to capture a bird by putting salt on its' tail.

When I grew up and had my son, I told him the same salty tale about the time he turned four years old and began to chase the birds. He didn't buy the story like I did, though. After a few hours, he figured out that the birds could not be captured that way and very pointedly told me so.