A small dedication to the boys in my life***:

Between the innocence of babyhood and the dignity of manhood, we find a delightful creature called a boy. Boys come in assorted sizes,weights, and colors, but all boys have the same creed: to enjoy every second of every minute of every day and to protest with noise when the last minute is finished and they are packed off to bed.

Boys are found everywhere; on top of, inside of, climbing on, swinging from or running around or jumping to. Mothers love them, little girls hate them, older brothers and sisters tolerate them, adults ignore them and Heaven protects them. A boy is truth with dirt on its face, beauty with a cut on its finger, wisdom with bubble gum in its hair, and the hope of the future with a frog in its pocket.

When you are busy a boy is an inconsiderate nuisance, a bothersome jangle of noise. When you want to make an impression, his brain turns to jelly or else he becomes a savage sadistic jungle creature bent on destroying the world and him in it

A boy is a composite- he has the appetite of a horse, the digestion of a sword swallower, the energy of a pocket size atomic bomb, the curiosity of a cat, the lungs of a dictator, the imagination of Paul Bunyan, the shyness of a violet, the audacity of a steel trap, the enthusiasm of a fire-cracker, and when he makes something, he has six thumbs on each hand.

He likes ice-cream, saws, knives, the boy across the street, woods, water (in it's natural habitat), large animals, Dad, trains, and fire engines He is not much for Sunday School, company, schools, books without pictures, music lessons, neckties, barber shops, girls, overcoats, adults or bed time. Nobody else is so early to rise or so late to supper.

A boy is a magical creature - you can lock him out of your workshop, but not out of your heart. You can get him out of your study but not out of your mind.

Might as well give up. He is your captor, jailer, boss, and master - a pint sized bundle of noise - but when you come home at night with all the shattered pieces of hopes and dreams - he can mend them like new with the magic words: "Hi Dad" or "Hi Mom, I missed you."

~Adapted from the original by Alan Beck~ Essay submitted by: Harry Updegraff,Jr.

*** I hang around with way too many boys and not enough girls... But I wouldn't have it any other way... how could life be complete without my Odac boys, Bhai, Jere, Ravi, and co. or the Linstead boys and above all my little brother who will always be a little boy... ***