The Animal Man!!

We were about 10 feet apart when first our eyes met.

She looked at me intently, studying my face, and I smiled--held captive in her gaze.

She pointed at me and started yelling, "Animal Man! Animal Man!" while looking at her mom.

The mom bent down a little, looking at her three year old daughter, "What do you mean sweety?"

"Animal Man! It's Animal Man!"

"Have you seen him before?" she asked, stealing a quick glance in my direction and displaying a smile that didn't do much to mask her embarrassment.

"It's Animal Man!"

"Do you see any animals on him?"

In a hushed voice the girl replied, "No, but it's Animal Man," her insistence and impatience with her mom's lack of understanding obvious.

"Sweety, I don't know what you're talking about, but you're starting to be rude."

I lost track of what the mother was saying to her daughter as I continued to scan the groceries.

The mom came up to the register and slid her credit card in the keypad.  "I'm sorry.  I don't know who she thinks you are.  The only thing that I can think of is that little dark hair kid in the movie where he's living alone in the jungle with the animals... oh, what's that movie called?"

"The Jungle Book?" I asked.

"Yeah!  That's the one.  I can't figure out what else she could be thinking of..."

I had just trimmed my beard before coming to work, and being fairly familiar with how I was looking at the moment, I just couldn't make the connection of a bearded 6'3" guy in a TJ's crew member t-shirt, cargo pants, and hiking boots with Mowgli, the Jungle Boy.  I thought of suggesting "Grizzly Adams," but didn't.

I looked back to the girl, smiled to myself and wondered just who she thought I was.

---

A few days prior, a little boy was sitting in a shopping cart and kept insisting that there was a cow somewhere in the store, though his mom couldn't see it.  Finally, the mother realized he was referring to a chalk drawing of a cow above the dairy case, on the other side of the store. She was quick to correct herself and apologized, "Oh, now I see it sweety."

These two events, coupled, made me realize two things:

• Children are incredibly and accurately perceptive
• Maybe, we too quickly dismiss a child's perspective as being immature or fanciful

I bent slightly at my back, and with my knees, to set the grocery bag that I was gripping with both hands on the floor next to my register. The golden haired, blue-eyed boy looked up at me and smiled as the bag came to a rest on the linoleum. I went back to bagging the remaining items and talking with the mom while her daughter milled about next to her. I placed another bag on the floor when I noticed the little boy playing with the first bag, running his small hands over it's paper handles.

"That's a heavy bag," I noted with a smile, examining it's contents: a gallon of milk, a half-gallon of chocolate milk and some other light, space filling items.

"I can lift it," he said and proceeded to slip his arm, up to the bicep, through the handles. With a flex of his back and hips he unrested the bag, lifting if off the floor, his body shaking under the strain. He let the bag fall back to the floor, the paper handles coming to about chest level on his childish body.

"Wow, how'd you do that?" I exclaimed, both impressed and a little concerned for his safety.

"I'm a strong boy!" the 4-year old replied.

"Yeah, you are."

"I'm a strong boy," he repeated, again slipping his arm through the handles, up to the shoulder, and lifting the bag-- this time with greater ease, pushing up onto his to toes for added effect. He set the bag down, his smile showing the pride he had in his accomplishment.

Not one to be outdone by little brother, his sister came around the corner and assessed the situation.

"I'm a strong girl."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. I can lift... my mom and my dad!"

"With what, a fork-lift?"

"No, with my hand," as she displayed the hand, raising it above her head.

"Wow, you are strong."

I turned to look at the mom who had been silently watching with a smile.

"What are you feeding them?!," I joked, looking at the assortment of groceries on the counter that still needed bagging.

She looked at the groceries herself and broke out in laughter, exclaiming, "Really!" and shaking her head in amusment at her children.