Where Have You Been All This Time?

He has aged some. His fuzzy round head now is bald. Instead of poling his rickety little skiff along with a big stick in the swamp, he is using a crutch. Still we look to this cute innocent little guy for guidance in a troubled time. As we see Pogo nearing the shore, Albert Alligator is lounging on the bank. He’s aged too as he sports a pair of glasses and hearing aids. Albert is engrossed in a book. It seems his gotten a bit of education over the past 70 years.

Pogo shouts out to Albert, “What’s you readin Albert?” Albert looks up over the top of his thick lenses and answers, “I’m solvin a mystery here. I’m tryin to figur out why people don’t change”. Albert noted “We animuls always change- we hav to evry time I rains or if ther’s a big flood or if a fox cums by”. He holds up the book for Pogo and says “It says in here, people just keep hittin their head against the same wall. It don’t make sense”. To which Howland Owl, sitting on a branch, chimed in “Whoooo wood do that? No sense!” His pointed hat was bent in half, his black rimmed glasses were held together with tape, and there were a few feathers missing near the tail- but otherwise he looked like almost brand new. Owls age well.

At that moment, Houn Dog swam along-side the skiff doing a pretty mean dog paddle. When he arrived on shore he stepped beside Albert and began to shake vigorously, sending water everywhere. As he turned to speak to Pogo his very wet tail smacked Albert on the head and sent him flying into the swamp. Owl, ever prepared just said “Tsk Tsk” holding his umbrella over his head. Albert’s book flew into the air and landed in the water next to Pogo. His opossum tail held onto the tiller at the stern as Pogo reached over the side to retrieve the mistry book.

As Albert sat on shore and toweled himself dry, Porky Pine strolled into the left side of the frame with his usual scowl on his face. His porcupine daggers didn’t look so threatening now with his advanced age. They were all bent near the tip. He was no longer able to throw them like he did in his youth. They just fell out limply when he was annoyed leaving a few bald spots. Which made him even more annoyed than usual. “Whads dis commotion? This swamp is becomin infested with noise and vilunce”. Churchy Lafemme entered from the right carrying a bouquet of flowers. She has had a bit of a tail lift and coloring, so her black and white tail looked fresh and youthful. She happily tossed a flower to all saying “Every day is perfect- no need to change”.

Pogo meanwhile sat at the stern of his skiff looking at the last page. “I’m not much of a reader but the answer is use-ally at the end. If it wus in the middle it wuld be hard ta find”.

The swamp creatures got real quiet. All were waiting for the answer to “Why don’t people want to change”. Pogo sort of smiled which is hard for a possum since they don’t have the facial muscles for it. Besides smiling in the swamp is probably pointless. Pogo cleared his throat in order to be heard with this important pronouncement. He said, “this is familiar, I sorta rememba it but my memry aint great lately. It looks familiar. If I did say it that means this writer guy has playgerried”. With a deep breath Pogo reads the answer to why people don’t change … “We have met the enemy and they is us”.