Prompt and Circumstance

20:20 Vision - A Class Act

"Trap"(July 15-17, 2016)

Some people go to great expense to protect home and property. All manner of security cameras and alerts are installed, and many times, trusty guard dogs as well. And this happens not only in the home, but a growing range of car alarms are now making up a large part of the protection wanna-haves and must-haves.

But few can boast the particular fear that strikes the heart of anyone encountering 'my' Betty in her feistiest, most-protective mode.Her diminutive size and one prosthetic leg didn't daunt her in the slightest. Betty had been raised in one of the poorest and toughest areas of Glasgow, considered one of the most violent areas in the UK. A younger member of a large family, she'd had to be tough from her first faltering steps.

As an ambulance driver during WWII, she'd seen the pain and suffering those days inflicted on so many, along with the seamy side of life and had 'woman-handled' countless, often violent drunks in those troubled years. I guess this was the background to the fearless attitude I admired so much in this otherwise prickly little Scotswoman. Alongside her bed she kept a baseball bat. "If any wee boogers think they'll come and rob a puur old lassie wi' only one leg, they got a BIG surprise in store," she would say fiercely. "Oi'll be knocking their heads clean orff... that's what!"

Top of my memory list about Betty is the time I left her in the front seat of my car to zip into the local supermarket and pick up a few necessities for her. A group of teenage boys, boldly demonstrating their bravado, attempted to pull my hand-made, extra long 'Adelaide Crows' football supporters' scarf from where it was draped from one rear window to the other, enabling the ends and long fringes to fly triumphantly as I drove along.

None could see the tiny figure in front... until she sat up tall as she could, her loudest and gruffest voice matching her outraged, wizened little face -

"What do yer think yer doin'? Get away with ye... small wee beasties!"

I emerged moments later to see a small gaggle of heels disappearing down the road and Betty barely able to wait to self-righteously tell me the story and how "they wouldn't be aboot to do that again in a hoorry." Well no... with much inward chuckling, I had to agree. Dear Betty, she really couldn't imagine why I couldn't take the smile off my face for the rest of that shift with her.

Looking back after so many years, this story found me researching a special kind of spider. Huh... I hear you say? Well, in the Class Arachnida, there's a Misgolas sp that is a Trapdoor Spider. And a little-known fact about Trapdoor spiders is that they have eight eyes, a pair in the middle and three on each side. Maybe Betty only had a quarter of that spider's vision, but she surely concealed herself well before springing HER trap!