Bird spotting was one of the things I did when my friends were busy doing other things. Riding my bike out to the country with my sketchbook in my backpack, I would try to sketch birds I found interesting to show mom what I'd seen. Bird spotting was the first merit badge I earned as a Boy Scout. My second merit badge was for public speaking - telling my grade school class about the birds I saw.
Had there been a merit badge for fighting I would have earned two in one day.
I could sit and sketch anything. I just liked sketching things. Sometimes I had to defend myself from the neighborhood bullies, especially when I drew the girl counselors at the local play ground. Some older boys used to try to take the sketches of the girls away and they quickly discovered not to mess with my sketchbook. No matter how many times I was knocked down, I always got up, ready for more. Several times the girls I drew had to rescue me… and then I had to explain torn shirts to mom. Those stitches in my shirts were badges of honor.
As more kids moved into the neighborhood I made fewer trips into the country for bird spotting. Baseball was possible now with more kids, so a baseball mitt replaced my sketchbook. Come winter, though, I was back to drawing. My parents bought "How to Draw Horses," and "How to Draw Dogs," books for me. Mom wouldn't buy "How to Draw the Nude." Wouldn’t even let me look at it at the art store…
The horses in the art book looked so much better than the horses on the farms I visited. The dogs were the same, pure pedigree in the art book, mine were just mutts.
