One of my family's favorite movies is Christmas Vacation. In a strange way our family resembled the Grizwalds and we would often found ourselves quoting this movie in any given situation. At prayer time one would say "Grace, she passed away years ago" or the classic "Save the neck for me Clark" at every chicken dinner. One particular scene from Christmas Vacation set the perfect script for what happened one winter's evening.
At one time the Childress manor had an ajoining covered breezeway that joined the garage to the house. It had two screen doors and every now and then birds will fly in and make a nest or simply get caught inside the breezeway. This particular evening a cardinal had done just that. We were eating dinner and heard a rucus come from the breezeway. Sure enough we saw a cardinal fly from one end to the other looking for an escape. The bird purched itself on one of the rafters to get a good lay of the terrain and plan his escape. He saw his opportunity and took it. The cardinal leaped from the rafters swooping down over our heads and right into the open door leading into the living room. At that very moment mom yelled BIRD!!!!! as Clark senior yelled SQUIRRLE!!!!! in Christmas Vacation. All of the sudden our little home was turned into a funhouse for the said bird and his new captures.
I immediately went to the garage and retrieved my fishing net. Mom had a blanket trying to move the bird out the door as done by Chris Farley in Black Sheep. Instead the clevor bird went deeper into the house and ended up in our bathroom. Purched on the window seal the bird was cornored and his persuers were closing in. At that very moment the cardinal charged his persuers as we hit the deck and the bird proceeded its way throughout the house. Knocking over lamps and leaving little bird droppings the bird was getting the best of the Childress clan. Eventually we caught the trapped cardinal with the net and released it outside, but not before my little brother could utter the words "Save the neck for me Clark".
-Steve Childress
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