THE PUMP HOUSE MONSTER

"Mom, Dad just ate monster!"

My grandson Grant excitedly told his mother.

The rest of the table laughed heartily.

Grant's father had just finished off lobster, not monster, on a Hawaiian cruise when Grant was three. So when his dad had ordered lobster, Grant misunderstood. He must have waited in such anticipation! Because of sea sickness and/or pregnancy, his mother had not come to the table for dinner until later.

"Oh, he did?" she played along, and got the real scoop about her husband's entree.

Like a lot of minunderstandings, I think Yeti, Sasquatch, Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster are just that---misunderstandings.

Now the Pump House Monster in MTV must have been the real thing. I mean there were eyewitnesses and everything. Oh, yeah, there usually are. But lots of these sighters were teens. Who had maybe been drinking.

And it was a good place to take girls. They would never go there alone, but with just the right guy, they might park the car for quite a while to watch and wait for the Pump House Monster. In an earlier age it was called snipe hunting. But snipe never scared people like a monster would.

Also, the Pump House Monster was never found. That means he may still be out there. And those have always been the best kinds.