Here Comes Franklin

Turtles have had a way of appearing in my life for about forty years now. When I was little I had a pet turtle that came from a pet store. In the wilds, turtles can live for decades. Mine died quickly and we flushed him down the toilet. Vivid, traumatic memories.

My mother, bless her heart, found another way to entertain me with turtles, as in 'Mmmmm, I love TURTLES'. You know the ones, they're a delicious combination of chocolate, caramel, pecans, modified palm oil, lactose, battery acid, ground up turtle shell, and ear wax. Add enough glucose and....Mmmmm, I love TURTLES!™

When Julian was little we had two encounters with turtles. One time we found a turtle attempting to cross the rod along the Lower Jemseg flats. We worried about the turtle safely making it across the road, so we escorted him. This PETA-worthy act was carried out with great pageantry and back slapping (slapping my own back). I was hoping that Juilian would see me as a caring, conscientious animal lover, thus negating the bad press I received as a Bambi slayer.

The second turtle encounter with Julian involved a kid's cartoon/book based on the life of a turtle-like character called Franklin. I don't remember what Franklin did in the cartoon, but one can only assume that he wore a baseball hat that somehow didn't get knocked off when he retracted his head into his shell. I think he played baseball with some friends, many of whom were vermin. There was also a theme song to this show, which Julian later 'borrowed' to sing about two golden retrievers. If I grew two heads, took LSD and had mind bending hallucinations, I couldn't imagine anything more outrageous than Franklin.

Yesterday I was driving to the Gagetown ferry when I saw something on the road ahead. Same location...turtle alley, just past Andrew and Nancy's place. I'll bet it was the same turtle that Julian and I encountered 17 years earlier. He more or less looked at me with a 'you again?' expression on his face. I didn't help him across the road this time as I'm not sure that he was looking to cross it. I thinking he was waiting for a ride somewhere, likely to a baseball game. 

He was a handsome creature: striped, painted, shelled. I was happy to see him because....

Mmmmm, I love TURTLES!™