Petrified Forest

My very wonderful brother-in-lw - Sir Thomas - sent me a ton of old family pictures. Among them was this famous - in our family anyway! - photo of us at the Petrified Forest Park in Arizona, I beleive. As you can see, my oldest sister is just to thirllied for words to be there.

The main story behind this picture is about yours truly. If you look, you can see the center of the tree stump has a hole in it. And in that hole were a million small chips of wood. Well, to a little kid - and I think I may have been all of four years old - those chips, all blue, brown & gold - were to beautiful to resist. so I pulled a bunch of them out and tucked them into my little pockets. The day went on as all days must, it came time to head out. At the entrance/exit to the park, is a Ranger station - they stop you coming and going - very pleasant - ask about your tip and such. They also check to make sure that no one removes any - and I mean ANY - pieces of the petrified wood from the park.

When the Range asked us all if we'd obeyed the rules - and I swear I never new about it - my father said - "Well of course they didn't take anything - my kids know to obey the law."

Well, that was when my little hand crept up into the air and in a very small voice..."Daddy?"....

My father was famous for "looks" - and this one could've killed me. Not only had I taken the chips, but my pockets were so full that I had to get out of the car to empty them. Once that was done and we were back on the road, you could've heard a pin drop. I don't think anyone said anything till we got to California!

My father has since passed away, and my brothers & sisters had the task of taking care of his belongings. As they went through things, they came across a set of petrified wood book ends.

Guess who has them now?