The spring before Brad joined the Army, he and I went up to help a friend Rick Haney, repair his barn, hunt some turkeys and, since it was very comfortable for early spring, both nights we slept out on the “sleeping porch”. The screened in porch was on two sides of Rick’s old ranch house. We noticed that Rick was sleeping, piled up under covers, with his AC roaring, but said nothing to him about it. Maybe it covered up our snoring!

The next morning, sunrise found us along a creek, in a makeshift blind, making hen turkey sounds. Brad leaned over to me and whispered, “Dad, did you hear those animals bumping around under Rick’s house last night?” Whispering back, “Yes, Son. It sounded like someone walking around the porch, or a herd of ‘Dillos!” (‘Dillos is Texican for Armadillo.) I continued, “They were even “bumping” right around my bed.”

The second night there was more “bumping around”, but barely waking, we both slept right through it. As we were leaving for Houston, I mentioned to Rick, “You need to trap those animals under your house and close up where they are getting in.” His short reply was, “I’m going to.”

After years and years and many trips up to Rick’s we found out that he had never eliminated those ‘dillos. There weren’t any ‘dillos either. In fact, those ‘dillos turned out to be some kind of unearthly beings. We saw ‘em, we chased ‘em and one friend almost shot at one. They chilled us and continued to bump around his old ranch house, while through it all, summer and winter, covered up in blankets, with his A/C roaring, Rick slept right through it all!

But all of these unearthly happenings are stories to be told.