Our family was on vacation visiting an area of Middle Tennessee where we lived for about three years. This was about a year or two after we had moved back to West Tennessee and our kids were still really young. At the time our youngest daughter, Mary, was probably about 4 years old. When we lived in that area, we had discovered a winery called Highland Manor. It is the oldest winery in Tennessee. We found a couple of their wines that we really liked and planned to stop there any time we were in the area.
My wife and I wanted to do some wine tasting before we purchased anything and while we were doing this, our kids spent time in the gift shop. The gift shop area appeared to be a couple of patio areas that had over time been taken in as additions to the original building. There were lots of interesting items in this shop but probably not the best place for three little kids to be roaming unsupervised. It looked like one of those shops that would have “you break it, you buy it” signs. Fortunately for us, our kids were careful and didn’t break anything. We wrapped up our wine tasting and we went into the gift shop area to find our kids. There was a narrow aisle that was crowded and in most areas would only accommodate one person. We made it through the store far enough that we could see the kids but it was going to take a little time to get to them. There was a man between us and the kids that was on crutches and he only had one leg. He was a little ways in front of us also moving toward our kids. As he approached Mary, she looked at us, peering through the area where his missing leg would have been. She pointed at his leg as she shouted,” MOM! LOOK! HE’S ONLY GOT ONE LEG!!!” Like any good parent, we looked around behind us like she was talking to someone else.
