by Ann Carranza

Created on: April 04, 2009   Last Updated: April 09, 2011

Pools, Ponds and Pigeons

Even when we need a warm relationship with our children, we cannot always count on it; just as when we need good health it might not be there. Travis, my then 15-year-old son, and I traveled throughout northern California to his competitive swim meets. However, I wasn't quite the person I once was due to chronic back pain. Still, these meets were important to both of us, and he worked his way through the swimming ranks, as I worked my way through pain.

I remember one meet in particular when we spent every minute he was not swimming, walking, talking, and observing the pools, ponds and pigeons. There are three swimming pools in the park, two in use for competition, and each morning, upon arriving,
we'd see the geese and ducks swimming in the warm-up pool. Jaws dropped as swimmers, parents and officials strolled through the gate to see feathered fowl swimming in an area that would later be overflowing with swimmers. Just before warm-ups began each day, officials would shoo the birds back to the park where they could swim in their large, artificially constructed ponds.

Heather
Farms
Park is large-with picnic grounds, play area for small children, a wedding garden, the aforementioned ponds, as well as exercise circuits and walking and running paths. Traversing these paths, Travis and I watched for water fowl hidden in the grasses or swimming in the water. Myriad birds species, including ubiquitous pigeons surrounded us.

Swimmers were nearly as ubiquitous as the pigeons, as there were more than one thousand swimmers from fourteen states and included international swimmers as well. Preliminary events were held in the morning, followed by a break before finals in the late afternoon. After eating lunch at a nearby restaurant, Travis and I had plenty of time to explore the area around the park. We bought birdseed at a local store, and upon our return to the park, proceeded to toss it around to entice the birds to come closer.

We were surrounded by ducks, geese, blackbirds, and pigeons, some of them bravely hissing at us when we didn't toss out the seed quickly enough. Travis and I leaned on a fence talking about the "old days" when my mother was still alive and she had a farm with fowl everywhere on the property. I told him that in my "younger days," I had been able to catch a chicken while just standing near it by dropping my shoulder and flashing out my arm to scoop it up. Of course, he didn't believe me. He knew me as a recently creaky woman who suffered from pain issues and he simply could not imagine me moving fast enough to catch even the slowest chicken.

While we were talking, I had been spreading seed on the top ledge of the fence where I was leaning, and the pigeons pecked closer and closer. Pigeons scattered every few seconds as some landed others scuttled away, squabbling over the seed.

An idea was forming in my mind and all my senses were on alert. Suddenly, I flung my hand to the right and swooped up a pigeon! I started laughing in victorious joy, and at the expression on Travis's face. He never imagined that I would try to grab a pigeon. He started demanding, through his own laughter, that I let it go, as the other pigeons flew frantically around us.

"Mom, turn that pigeon loose, everyone is looking at us," he spluttered.

I laughed as I soothed the ruffled feathers on the pigeon, while cooing at it.

"Didn't think I could do it, did ya?" I asked.

"Put it down," he exclaimed, "before the park rangers come and take you away!"

As I gently released the pigeon, I laughed so hard I had tears in my eyes. We walked back to the meet, where he shared "that crazy lady's impulses" with friends. I smiled and felt just like my old self again.

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