Mr. Buddy swallowed an acorn..

Mr.  Buddy swallowed an acorn (When I was a child...)

 

1 Corinthians 13:11

New King James Version (NKJV)

¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

God, all glory to you...May these words be delightful (full of joy and make you laugh out loud) in your sight my source!

Well, I have written about my Grandma Esther in the past.  And depending on how you receive this blog by social media or email, you will notice that I sign my emails - Grand of Esther.

My grandma was a huge part of my childhood. She contributed to the funny, colorful, character I am today.   There is one funny conversation that I hold onto all these years later and I can even see it vividly in my mind's eye, it's Mr. Buddy and the acorn.

Mr. Buddy was a friend of the family and a part of the 5th Street Washington DC family I grew up around.  Back when neighbors raised children.  That was when you shared plates of food, sometimes plastic cups of gin and my world was a one block island, 5th & 0 Street North West Washington DC.

There were not a lot of trees where I grew up in DC, here were little five foot plots with these huge trees growing out of them.  The trees produced acorns that would fall all over the sidewalk.  Back then kids were creative.  Acorns could be used for so many fun things, ammunition for home made sling shots, whistles, or a fine imaginary meal when we were playing house.  I use the word imaginary loosely because I was always tempted to put one in my mouth.  One day while I was holding an acorn in my hand and sitting on the stoop, the thought came to me about Mr. Buddy.  Grandma, why does Mr. Buddy use that voice box machine on his throat to talk?

Let me explain, Mr. buddy had an eight inch rectangular shaped machine (trachea machine/voice box) that he had to hold up to his throat and press a button so he could talk.  His voice sounded like a machine.  It didn't scare me at all it was just a part of the characters in my neighborhood, just like Mrs. Mary's crooked wig. 

Quick as lighting my Grandma said "Mr. Buddy ate an acorn and they had to cut it out of his throat and now he has to use that to talk."  I wasn't shocked by this information, heck, in my young mind it made perfect sense.

Now fast-forward oh, say 25 years.  My Grandma and Mr. Buddy have passed on and I'm talking with my Mom, reminiscing about the old days on 5th Street.  My Mom said it was so amazing that Buddy lived such a strong and healthy life after the throat cancer.  What throat cancer? I never knew he had throat cancer!  My mom looked at me in an odd way and said, well, why do you think he used that trachea  machine to talk? 

In all seriousness I looked at my mom and said, because they had to remove the acorn from his throat!

Apparently that wasn't the case and Grandma had told me this so that I wouldn't eat acorns (For the record it worked!)

As it says above - when I was a child I thought like a child!!!

I'm all grown up now...

I pray you have wonderful memories of the past and wisdom in the now!