Semi-Wordless Wednesdays: "They grow up too fast"

Hen-Dog, the Superhero of our work group, called my name one day.

"Lee, come check this out."

I walked over to his cubicle. He pulled up a pic of his 15-year-old son Ja.



My heart jumped. "Oh Lawd, he in the army? OH LAWD NO!" I yelled.

"No girl, he's in ROTC," Hen-Dog said. "My baby done grew up."

"Whoo," I sighed in relief. I thought I was gonna have to run find a punch bowl and smash it to the ground and yell "Damn, damn, DAMN!" life Florida did on good times.

My oh my, little Ja sure has grown up.

I still don't see him as a young man, a young ROTC man.

I see him as the slick shorty who came over to my house a couple of years ago and stood in my kitchen/dining room shuffling a deck of UNO cards. I posted about that (See Ja... King of Uno!), some 2 years ago.

Ja had to have been the happiest kid in the world . Always smiling, always polite... skipping along like a doggone smurf. He'd call when he come down for the summers and I would bake him a big pan of herb chicken wings and thighs. (He LOVED my bake chicken, lol).

And I thought I could take this little kid on in a simple game of UNO...

But he kept beating us.

And he would get his dance on everytime he won a game.



We played for three hours straight... Ja got his dance on quite often.



Despite me trying to get my brothers attention (so we could cheat), Ja continued to get his dance on.



I finally kicked that boy out of my house at one o'clock in the morning. We watched as he strutted back down the street to Daddy Hen-Dog's house, knowing that he was the King of Uno.



He's a teenager now.
Bet he would scoff at ANY suggestion of a quick UNO game.

Man, they grow up TOO fast.

I'd give anything to see that fella get his UNO "dance on" once more!