My neighbors Parker and Patty are always telling me how proud they are to be a part of Port O’Connor, Texas. They say it is a great community and so friendly.

Parker used to say to his kids, “You don’t know what you don’t know.” Well, recently one of the youngest grands made that really clear when he let Patty and Parker he did not know about giant Texas Grasshoppers.

Parker took the grandson to the farm for the week to work. One afternoon Parker was ‘resting his eyes’ in his easy chair when he heard the grandson hollering Parker hurried to the bathroom to find the grandson standing on top of the counter in the sink, eyes wide, tears dripping, pointing at a 4-inch black and gold south Texas grasshopper. Payton had never seen the raspy mouth, big eyes and huge legs of this creature up close. The boy was sure it ate small children in a single bite.

Pappaw Parker caught the grasshopper, showed the youngster the harmless nature of the thing, calmed the boy and dried the tears. Careful not to follow his first impulse and scoff at Payton’s fear of a harmless bug, it was a teachable moment.

A few days later, young Payton was heard telling his sister that he had several grasshoppers in a jar under his bed. Pappaw was again reminded how scary things can be when you “don’t know what you don’t know.” Payton sure had fun scaring his sister with those grasshoppers. Guess Pappaw is gonna get some more teachable moments with both his grands.

Happy Summer Y’all!