Thursday, August 30, 2012

Aldergators


Gulf coast tropical storms often come to Mayberry to die, and so it seems shall Isaac, Saturday afternoon. No one here is complaining though. The trees are so dry they'd weep, if they had the moisture. In Mayberry we have a homegrown version of hurricane preparation. We look for aldergators.

Can you see the aldergator in the water across the lake?

Aldergators, as I learned recently on a trip to the zoo, is the name given by one of my 3 year old buddies to those reptiles found in the marshy areas of the southeastern US. Aldergator skins are used to make expensive shoes, purses and leather goods. When my buddy grows up he'll likely call them alligators, but for me it's aldergators forever.

I learned that it is necessary to rid the lake of aldergators before a storm comes. Mayberry lake aldergators are of course fallen tree limbs. Left unchecked, they have the nasty habit of clogging the culvert when the water rises rapidly. I learned this the hard way several years ago when I awoke to find our culvert had washed away overnight and that we now lived on an island. Island living wasn't all it was cracked up in my mind to be.

So now I prepare. After throwing out my back, next year I'm using a winch.

Toad

4 comments:

Yankee-Whisky-Papa said...

In our house, it was a confusion between the words "alligator" and "elevator" for a while that ultimately ended in a hybrid "elgavator" used for each. That, and the launching of the "space shovel".

ADG said...

Aldergators...the Mayberry kind...are best used for Dutch clogs perhaps?

Elephant was Lafun-ant at least it was for the 3 year old LFG

Toad said...

I suspect that most families are able to speak a language known only to its members, I know ours can and does.

Pigtown*Design said...

i have a nephew who had a dog called lulu and whenever he'd say absolutely, he'd say absolulu. so we all say that now.