ALIGATOR EGGS

I have three children, a daughter and two sons; my daughter is my first born.

Awhile back my eldest son came for a visit. We laughed and as fathers always do I brought up some of the always funny, sometimes dumb things he and his siblings did.
My favorite memories.

My kids grew up in Ingleside Texas; a nice small Texas town. Outside of Ingleside, headed towards Rockport Texas there was a tourist place that was an alligator farm.
In reality it was one of those places where you could take your kids and see alligators up close. It was a cool place.

Headed off in the other direction there was a farm house that had this huge sign out front advertising, duck eggs. I never bought any, but I often wondered about 'em,
just not enough to go and buy any.

When my kids were young my dad, their grandpa showed up and lived with us for a little while. 

I guess my boys were somewhere around six and eight years old and like all boys they loved their grandpa. Now to say that my dad was a character would be like sayin'
the Pope hangs out in Rome. Believe me, he was not your typical grandfather or father for that fact.

So one early Sunday morning he showed up at the house and rounded up the three kids and told them that he had a special treat; he was going to cook them scrambled eggs, ALIGATOR eggs. Man they swarmed around him to look at these alligator eggs then hovered around him as he whipped 'em up and watched with baited breath as he cooked them and then doled 'em out on four plates. They listened with rapt attention as he told the story of going to the alligator farm, sneakin' in and grabbing the eggs while the gators were asleep. In awe of their heroic grandpa they all sat at the table and then in acts of bravery, ate their alligator egg breakfast. And, when I came in from work that was the topic of discussion "Pop, we ate alligator eggs for breakfast!" so excited. My dad winked, then whispered in my ear ... duck eggs.

Now my son in question here, is forty-five years old at the time of his visit and a darn lawyer on top of that; he's a smart dude. lol. 

As we strolled down memory lane I brought the alligator egg story and busted out laughing at the memory of his wide eyed rendition of how his grandpa had feed them alligator eggs. He looked at me with a blank stare ... I looked back ... quietly I added ... "they were duck eggs". He looked like the kid who just found out Santa wasn't real  and I realized I had crushed one of his greatest childhood memories. Then he smiled and said ... I always believed they were alligator eggs! But now that I think about ... we laughed ... with a shake of his head he said, "Grandpa".

Damn it man.

Peace be with you. Mark

 

FCI Bastrop, Texas 4-5-26