Memory Lane

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf-ecpV4304

I saw this video and was reminded of "my" sweet African Gray Parrot, Crackers, that I had during my high school years. I stole him from my science teacher...kind of. As you can imagine, living in a high school science class room for years, he was very afraid of people because he was constantly poked at with pencils, or kids would just rush up to his cage and bang on it. It really made me mad, so after taking him home for winter break I just never brought him back.

My science teacher, Brent Brown, was a dear friend of mine. I was his unauthorized TA during his planing period. I graded papers or set things up for him, but mostly we just talked and enjoyed each others company. Of course I ended up with an "A" in science that year! When he had a sub I would get a phone call telling me not to come to "class" that morning. During that time I fell in love with this bird. He would let me hold him and feed him. He could say good morning in about 20 different voices and would do so every morning. "Good morning Lakers", "good morning". A bad habit that he had was when he got mad he would start swearing up a storm. He would just run a blue streak under his breath. The first time that he did it I couldn't stop laughing. I taught him to say "I love you." He loved to look at himself in the mirror and would say, "I love you Crackers!" His cage was always open, yet he hardly ever ventured out. My mom tried so hard to get him to like her and would always try to give him apples, but Crackers would always try to bite her, so she would drop it and then he would pick it up and eat it. My mom said that if I was ever gone for long period of time he would wander around the house. She said it was as though he were looking for me. He would go check everywhere and then just go back to his cage and sit there and wait. He got wildly jealous when I met Alan. He really didn't like him at all. Once Alan was laying on his stomach on my bed, and Crackers took advantage of the moment...got to the level of his feet and bit the back of his ankle. When I got married I had to give him back to my science teacher with a promise that he wouldn't bring him back to school. It was a sad day to part with my friend Crackers.