BUNGLING IN THE JUNGLE

Just before Don Andrew hit the ball over the creek and ended up in it, thankfully feet-first, he experienced another frightening adventure. There are very few adventures that would cause fear in such a fearless knight as Don Andrew. Of course, it was Grandpa Sancho who was the frightened one. You see, Grandpa Sancho is just like his 16th Century counterpart from la Mancha. His goal in life when there are adventures is to protect Don (whether 16th Century or today) from his external environment and so often from himself. That’s been a particularly difficult thing to do for 500 years for the various Don Quixotes who have come along. This old knight’s squire is sure there have been plenty through the years.

Now the day began right. Grandpa Sancho and Don Andrew watched a little bit of a semi-violent cartoon which this old sharecropper abruptly changed. This did not meet with our hero’s approval, upon which he did the usual number like say, Mommie would let me watch it! Grandpa, please! and finally running around the room saying, I don’t want to watch Jo Jo! Grandpa Sancho stood his ground, or tiles as was the case. Grandpa Sancho would rather have an angry hero than have one of those little ones watch such nonsense on the TV. He did get over it all and put in a video we could share.

Finally the temperature was perfect. It was not too cold and not too hot. It was time to go to the backyard and fight some enemies or something. Grandpa, let’s play baseball. Nothing could make this befuddled old laborer happier unless Don Andrew changed his favorite color green to Dodger Blue.

Everything began just fine. Don Andrew went down toward the creek and set up his tee and put the ball on it and knocked it clear up to the house a few times. That was awesome. Well, there was just one problem. Don Andrew easily gets sidetracked into many adventures. The Duke had sawed many limbs from the Oak Forest in the backyard and piled them up against the house. It was a jungle of very dead limbs.

As fate would have it, one of the balls, the green one to be exact, landed right in the middle of that jungle. It’s fortunate that Don Quixote and Sancho Panza did not have to encounter jungles. Windmills are quite sufficient for adventures.

Don Andrew took his bat and declared it a sword and began to attack the jungle from the outside. This resulted in no progress whatever. There was just one thing to do. This boy has the spirit of Benny the Jet Rodriquez written all over him. Again he squared off at one end of that probably 20 ft. pile of limbs, the jungle, and started working out his strategy.

Very gingerly Don Andrew began to make his way through what had now become The Jungle. Bungling along, he attacked the limbs in front of him with his sword-bat. Do you want to hold my hand? Another of Don Andrew's favorite expressions is: What are you talking about? He does not say it disrespectfully but it was time to say it when the old knight's squire asked that question that met with such disapproval since Don Andrew is now 4 and needs little help for anything: What are you talking about, Grandpa? I can do this myself. And, do it he did. From one end to the other and he emerged with bat in one hand and ball in the other. I might add that he had many scratches on his legs for he is perhaps the first famous knight to wear shorts on adventures. We would no suggest such Bungling in the Jungle adventures for those under 4.

What a marvelous day was had and too many adventures to recount at this time. Grandpa Sancho is tired.