The emu and the gold mine

When my in-laws were alive, their family property included an old dried-up gold mine that never did amount to much. From what I gather, it was an expensive hobby for my mother-in-law’s father. One day, I was out walking their trails and came upon the large opening to the mine, which in essence is now a large pit about twenty meters in diameter and that much in depth.

As I looked at the bottom of the pit, I saw the skeleton of a very large bird. It looked like an ostrich, which would be very uncommon for this neck of the woods. When I got back to the house, I had to inquire.

My father-in-law laughed and said that was an emu skeleton, which would also be rare. It turns out, one of his neighbors was raising emus and one had passed on. So, he asked my father-in-law if he could toss it into the pit. Although it sounds like a person who just did not want to dig a hole, my father-in-law appeased him and said it was OK.

Currently, there are series of themed TV commercials for Liberty Mutual (who some call Limu or Lee-Moo) insurance, where the mascot is Limu the Emu. Note: some ad agency is making money off this idea. I guess they are combatting the Geiko Gekko (who is a CGI mascot), with an Australian man mimicking a Cockney accent – go figure.

Yet, as I watch these commercials, my mind drift backs to looking down into that pit and seeing the now known emu skeleton. Since I was alone on the trails, it was actually an out of body experience. As I was thinking WTF, I felt like someone was watching me see this skeleton in a Rod Serling sort of way. A spaceship had crashed, created this crater and its bird like pilot died as he crawled out.

Then, reality set in and the acknowledgment it was some kind of large bird came to light. The story of the throwing an emu carcass into the hole did not cross my mind, My saner version of the ET story is a large bird was running and did not know the hole was there and fell in. I like that story better than it just being used as a lazy person’s burial ground. It makes me feel the emu died what he liked doing best – running.

So, while Limu the Emu (and his buddy Doug) are peddling insurance, I am thinking of my ET-like emu skeleton. Since there was no cell service this deep in the woods, I could not “phone home” for this ET. It was truly a very weird day. Almost Twilight Zone-like. Cue Mr. Serling and the eerie music.