me and the chickens

"simple friends"
9 x 12 mixed media collage
(c) 2009 julie king

while collaging and painting away on this new piece, i was chuckling about the time that my sister kathy and i went to visit aunt helen and uncle chet. they lived in a very small 2-story farmhouse with a small garden and a sizable chicken house. on the second day we had explored the entire property and were feeling quite bored. one of us (ok, it was me) wondered out loud what would happen if we took the garden hose into the chicken house and did a little spraying. my aunt and uncle were napping in their chairs in the parlor so into the chicken house we went, garden hose in tow. at first we just did a small stream of water in the general direction of the chickens and it was so much fun that of course we intensified their shower to a full-on blast. who knew chickens could flutter around that fast and make that much noise??!!

at home the next evening, our family dinner was interrupted by the telephone ringing. my mom answered and said a very friendly "oh, hello, aunt helen". kathy and i gave each other a panicked look, knowing mom and dad would not find the chicken shower nearly as funny as we had. frozen in place at the table, we heard mom utter a series of reallys and on mys and i'm so sorrys. our collective goose was cooked.

i'm sure mom was very embarrassed and dad was awfully disappointed in us but mostly i remember that look on my brother rodger's face when mom told my dad what had transpired at dear old aunt helen's house. it was the look of having missed a double scoop chocolate ice cream cone. or the look of having stayed home while the rest of us went to the county fair. his look said, "oh man! darn! i can't believe i missed all that fun!!!"

i still need to add the title "simple friends" to this piece and then i'll list it in my etsy shop!!