Binoculars

These binoculars have been in our place in Deltaville for as long as I can remember.  

That would be about 30+ years. 

 My guess is that they were there long before that.  

They belonged to my grandfather, and they always had a prominent place on one of the tables

 by the window in the old trailer.  

Or the kitchen table in the new house.  

They are great for checking out how rough the river is or trying to identify a bird or animal 

or movement in the water, 

and they're even handy for seeing what people are doing.  

Not that I would ever use them to spy on people, 

but you can see clearly across the creek and also down to the community pier.  

Not that I have first hand knowledge of this. 

I used them just this past weekend to see who was walking out on one of the neighbor's pier 

identify some ducks. 

It reminded me of my grandmother and how she liked to 

see what all the neighbors were up to

watch the wildlife.

And it reminded me of all those times growing up where my cousin and I would 

fight over who got to use them first.

We would have to sneak them out of the house if we wanted to take them anywhere.

Allowing them to cross the threshold was clearly verbotten.

We did it anyway.

Now I realize that had a lot to do with them being my grandfather's 

and my grandmother not wanting to lose something of his after he passed.

There's a lot of memories in those old binoculars.

In many ways I imagine you could claim that they let you look back in time.