This, That, and the Other

You may call me a stick in the mud, children, but the fact is that I’m an old man who needs two walking sticks to get around. You can’t expect me to get up and dance the Fandango anymore at my age.

I know you want me to come with you to the park so we can all run and play and frolic. And you have no idea how much I would love to join you. If I could, I most surely would. But my old bones won’t let me.

I think I’ll just stick around the house and wait for you children to return. Then maybe we can play an exciting game of pick-up sticks on the kitchen table. Or if the weather is still nice, you can go out in the yard for some stickball and I’ll watch from the back porch swing.

What? You never heard of those games? Well, I’ll just have to take a yardstick to your daddy’s butt for never teaching them to you. Don’t laugh, Children. When your daddy was your age, I was a stickler about making sure he knew all the games, both indoor and outdoor. And I’d insist that he stick with all of those activities instead of sitting around with his eyes glued to a screen playing video games.

So go to the park and burn off a lot of your energy while old gramps here closes his eyes and takes a little nap. And when you get back, this old dog will teach you some new tricks.

And you can stick that in your pipe and smoke it! No children, I’m not telling you to smoke a pipe. It’s just an old expression. Now go to the park and play and run around. Have fun and I’ll see you when you get back.

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Written for Linda G. Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt where she’s asked us to use the word “stick” in our responses to her prompt: image credit: Bing Image Creator — old man with walking sticks in an oil painting.