This story is about a great father/son moment that I will never forget. It was 94. Summer. I was in college but stayed at home. Slept in my old room. Every night I’d hear this scratching on the windows. Scratch scratch scratch. Like it was on the screen of the window. 1/
I’d open the blinds and see nothing but the moon shining through the giant water oak. Told my dad. He said it was probably lizards. But I was determined to find out what this sound was. I lifted the blinds and waited. Heard the scratching, I turned on my flashlight 2/
And clinging to the screen part of the window was a rat the size of a small dog. It ran away quick. My dad listened this time. We looked around the house until we came upon the log pile. Had to be the place. So he leaves out a trap. And we wait. 3/
Next morning. Go check the trap. Trap is gone. So we leave another trap. Next morning it gets a big rat. My dad guesses there are more. Sets out another trap. Catches another. He says. Tomorrow morning we’re going to war, son. 4/
We wake up. We have our weapons. Him with a shovel and me am with an aluminum bat. The log pile is 4 feet tall. We start taking the logs off one at a time. We’re down to the last two rows of logs. He says. I’m going to go stand here and if they come out I’ll be ready. 5/
There’s only one row of logs left. 9 logs. I start from the left. One rat runs out towards my dad. WHAP. Dead rat. I lift up the log on the right. 2 rats. WHAP WHAP. 2 dead rats. I continue this until I get to the three center logs. My dad steels himself. 6/
I lift up the last three and a tsunami of rats barrels towards my dad. His pounding the ground with the shovel! The rats turn 180° and run towards me. Batter up. They turn again towards him. He gets most of them. But several ran to the neighbors house. 7/
And that is the story of one of the best days of my life.
