The "What A Story For Easter Sunday!" Story

It is EASTER SUNDAY!  So...Happy Easter to all of you!  Now...I must tell you how I began my Easter Sunday.  Opened the front door and grabbed my morning Sunday News from in front of the door.  The Sunday News is always a very thick newspaper since it has tons of advertisements in it.  Well today's paper was no different.  Until I grabbed the first part of the newspaper...The "Living Section".  I sat in my lounge chair, opened the paper and began to read the usual headline..."Lassoing a pigeon ruined an evening but made good story."  OMG, there under the headline read in capital letters...LARRY WOODS, for LNP LANCASTERONLINE.  It was a few years ago that I wrote a story about breaking my arm while trying to lasso a pigeon.  I sent it to the newspaper since they were asking for stories from their readers.  It was never published...until EASTER SUNDAY...TODAY!  So, just in case you haven't heard the story before, today will be the day.  Follow along as I read it as I'm typing it...for everyone in Lancaster County, and all over the world, to read on EASTER SUNDAY!

I had the best grandpa ever.  William Cochran was a foreman at Armstrong Cork Company off Liberty Street in Lancaster.  I lived with my mom, dad and younger brother on the last block of North Queen Street, a block from the Lancaster train station and a few blocks from Armstrong Cork Co.  Grandpap would often stop by our house on his way home from work to say Hi!, or to pick me up on Tuesdays on his way to Root's Sale in nearby East Petersburg.  We would grab something to eat for supper at Root's and head to the building where they would auction off the small animals.  Very seldom would we head home without some sort of small animal that he would win for me at the auction house.  One that I remember the most, was a single gray pigeon that was in a box.  You could tell that something was wrong with it since it couldn't fly and had trouble even turning around in the box.  My mom was waiting for us as Grandpap pulled up to the front porch in his Studebaker.  I got out of the car with a big smile on my face, holding the shoe box in my hands.  Mom knew I had something in the box the minute she saw me gently holding it.  Mom and I fed the bird and put a wire cover over the box before I went to bed that evening.  The next day we talked about what we should do with the injured pigeon.  I suspect she had a different idea as what to do with the bird than I did.  I won out and we put a wooden Popsicle on the brown wing of the bird using yarn.  We placed him in a wooden box with a wire screen over the top of the box.  He seemed to be doing well, so about three weeks later I took the stick off his injured wing.  Just like that, he flew from the box to a tree at the rear of our house.  I tried to catch him, but he flew up the alleyway an landed on the roof of our neighbor's garage.  I quickly ran home to tell my mom and grabbed a rope to lasso him.  I ran back up the alley and jumped on a metal gate next to the roof where the bird was sitting.  I took the rope, which I has made into a lasso, and threw it in the bird's direction.  The bird flew away as the metal gate flew open and I fell off the gate.  I ran home holding my arm while crying.  My parents knew instantly that I had broken my arm.  My dad took me to the hospital where they did a few X-rays and placed my arm in a cast.  I found out later that evening that Mom and Dad had plans to go out to eat with friends that evening since that day was their wedding anniversary!  Every year on their anniversary, my mom and dad always reminded me of the day that I broke my arm trying to lasso a pigeon!  Perhaps you might have read this story before, but I never stop telling it....for it is one story that I will never, ever forget from my childhood.  My poor mom and dad missed going out to eat on their wedding anniversary due to me breaking my arm while trying to lasso that pigeon.  They have both passed, but every time the story pops up in my mind, it brings back wonderful memories of my parents and how good they were to me.  How many children have parents who would miss their wedding anniversary because of their crazy kid trying to lasso a pigeon?  And now...the whole world knows the story of this crazy kid who broke his arm trying to lasso a pigeon.  But, this is one story from my childhood that I will never, ever forget!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.