The "The Love Of My Life Was A Yellow-Bellied Turtle" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading a story in the Spring issue of "balance magazine" that is titled "A Turtle-y Amazing Story."  Featured a drawing of a multi-colored turtle that led me into the story.  Just before I began to read, I found a tag line that told me that the story was written by a former student at Manheim Township High School named Mike Andrelczyk.  Began with...Like many septuagenarians, Nicki relishes a long winters nap.  Seems that Nicki is a 70-year old yellow-bellied slider turtle who spent the past winter under a rock in the kiddie pool in a spare room of Georgene Aungst's Hopeland home.  Nicki had just spent the winter in Georgene's home.  She will turn 70 in the near spring making her ten years younger that her owner.  It was 70 years ago that she was a mail-order newborn pet turtle in the home of 10 year old Georgene.  The newborn turtle came with a plastic dish with an island in the centre and a fake palm tree.  Might have cost $5...if that!  Do you remember when you were 10 years old and may have had the chance to buy a pet turtle.  I do!  And...I bought one!  And, I remember much of the following that was part of Mike's story in "balance magazine."  Nicki was about the size of a half-dollar when she showed up in the mail.  My yellow-bellied slider traveled with me to all my relatives homes so I could show her to everyone.  My yellow-bellied slider was native to the southeastern United States and can usually be found in rivers, ponds and swamps.  Their shells are a mottled green on top and their belly is yellow.  They tend to live to be between 30 to 40 years old, but can live to be double that.  Turtles make good pets and tend to enjoy red foods such as tomatoes, strawberries and watermelon.  They also like "people" or "animal" food such as chicken, burgers, hot dogs, potato chips and pretzels.  They have to go underwater to swallow.  I usually kept mine in my wadding pool that was in my backyard.  I had a platform built on the one side of it so she could get out of the water if she wanted to do so.  At times she escaped from my back yard which had a metal fence around it, but my  neighbors would call my mom if they saw her wandering around their backyard.  

"Sweetie"

I knew that she would live to be very old, but in her case, she wandered into the printing company next to my house and that's the last time I ever saw her.  Perhaps she became part of someones magazine or book or maybe one of the workers found her and took her home with them.  After reading the recent story in "balance magazine," she just might be a young boy or girls' pet.  Just in case you are the one who found her...she answers to "sweetie."  And...please tell her, her dad misses her.  And, thanks, Mike for taking me back 60 plus years when the love of my life was a yellow-bellied turtle.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.