The Lessons Life Teaches, A Collection of Short Stories.

The IFA Store

A number of years ago, I needed to go to the IFA store in Elko to pick up some bags of wood chips for the garden. The IFA store is a good-sized store that has supplies for ranchers and farmers. It is always interesting to wander down the isles because you see all kinds of things you don't see in normal stores.

On this occasion I took my mother, who was in her 70s, and my son, who was probably near 8 years old, with me. When we got to the store, I went about my business and my mom and son were wandering around the store looking at various ranch and farm supplies. Suddenly, I heard a commotion going on between my mom and son. I stopped what I was doing and went to see what the problem was. There I found my flabbergasted mom. Standing next to her was my son holding a cattle prod. My mom said "He shocked me! He shocked me! He could have killed me!" As the story unfolded, my son had seen the three-foot-long stick with two prongs and asked my mom what it was. She said it was a cattle prod. You put it against an animal, and it shocks them and makes them go where you want them to. My son thought he would try it out and touched it against my mom's bare skin. What they didn't know was the cattle prod was fully functioning and gave my mom a large jolting shock. By this time, my mom was on a terror. Her anger now turned from her grandson to the store. "Why did they have this thing in here! It could have killed me!"

I took the stick out of my young son's hand and put it back on one of the higher shelves, as he looked like he might try it again. Made sure my mom was going to survive, and then quickly finished getting my wood chips and made my way to the car with an enlightened mom.

My mom has now passed, some 20 years after this incident. The next time I see my son I will try and remember to ask if he recalls the incident. It would be interesting to see if it is as memorable to him as it was for me.