Just Climbing a Tree

A few weeks ago, Jack decided that we all needed an outdoor picnic for lunchtime. He called it a 'Fun Bun'. He explained to us that a Fun Bun meant that we have a party, but only with the people that are already at our house. So, he set up the table and chairs in our driveway (the only place not covered in mud right now), and made sandwich and grape plates. He also made little tickets for 25cents for games. One of the 'games' that we could choose was called 'climbing the tree'. Gable and I bought tickets to this game.

We have a tulip tree in our front yard and it really is a nice tree. It is tall and beautiful and has two wooden planks nailed into it to help get little feet started on their climb. After I climbed for a while, (near the bottom of the tree), I got down and went back to the Fun Bun. Gable (near the top of the tree) kept climbing.

A few minutes later, I heard a police siren chirp and looked over to see three police cars by our climbing tree. (Hidden Valley has it's own deputies, which apparently are real deputies now, complete with guns and ticket-writing abilities) The man in the passenger seat of the first car leaned out his window and said to Gable, "I want you to come down from that tree right now, son." Granted, it wasn't mean, but it was a man in authority, so it sounded pretty tough. I started over towards the police car and although it sort of embarrases me to say this, I was slightly intimidated. I have always believed that I would not even flinch when it came to defending my children, but with three police cars there, I flinched. Fortunately, I got myself together. I walked over to the police car sort of laughing saying, "WHAT?" The guy told me that my son was too high in the tree and that he simply asked him to come down. I knew exactly where Gable was, I was outside with him and frankly, boys climb trees! So, I just said, "No, he's okay."

It was at this point that things got a little unsettling. He should have just driven away. At that point I would have thanked him for his concern and everything would have been okay. But he persisted. I think it was his ego. He looked at me and then at Gable again, and then said it, "Son, I still want you to come down from that tree."

And I did the only logical thing to do: "JONATHAN!"

Mind you, Jon is not a big guy, but you wouldn't have known it from the way he plowed over the driveway and up through our yard. Jon had been on the driveway playing his guitar at the Fun Bun, so he had seen part of our exchange with Mr. Deputy Dog. Jon tore through the yard, headed toward the police cruiser and demanded, "Sir, what is your name?"

The guy said, "I'm Bruce Keller and I'm the Community Manager here in Hidden Valley."

Jon shoved his hand in through the cruiser window and said, "Bruce Keller, I'm Jon Price and that is my son in the tree. Is there a problem?"

Mr. Keller proceeded to tell Jon that his son was too high in the tree and that he might fall. Jon crossed his arms over his chest, turned to the tree, looked it up and down and turned back to the police cars and said...wait for it...here it comes...

"Well, he might"

I love that man.

Braveheart and Robin Hood rolled into one.

Mr. Bruce Keller then tried a few different lines, and ultimately, he drove off. I thanked him for his concern, but inside I felt weird. Sort of a hodge-podge of amusement and disturbance at the same time.

As the three cars drove off, Jon summed it up perfectly and simply. He said, "Do you know what that man's problem is? He's forgotten what it was like to be a boy."

And that's just plain sad.