Old Man's Cave

This is just a short story of something that happened last weekend, when Rob (husband) and I went to Hocking Hills State Park in SE Ohio. We decided (translates to Rob decided) to go to Hocking Hills for the day last Saturday Sept 22nd, and do some hiking and sight seeing. I haven't been hiking in forever, so I was reluctant to go. That and I just simply didn't want to. Lol

As we parked, we noticed that several people had gathered to take pictures on the stone bridge that leads down to the path that takes you to Old Man's Cave. As we were waiting for them to move, we were talking about the history of the place. I have lived in Ohio for 18 years and have never been there, so Rob was telling me the different things we would see and where to be careful.

The crowd finally moved and we made our way down to the steps, leading to this beautiful rock formation. I was watching the sun glint off the water, instead of where I should have been walking, and I was getting a little close to the edge. I heard Rob (or what I thought was Rob) say "Be careful deary, it's a tittle of a drop from here." I started laughing and turned to ask Rob where he heard such an old fashioned word like tittle, and since when did he call me "deary." When I turned around I realized he was still up at the top photographing the bridge, and I was midway from the bottom, all alone. I thought maybe it was an echo from a conversation someone else was having close by, as the place echoed a bit when you spoke loudly.

Rob finally made his way down, and I was telling him about what I had heard. He looked at me and asked if the voice was a man or a woman, and started to laugh when I said it was a man's voice. I was a little mad when he laughed, as he knows how things go with me and he never has laughed at me before. After glaring at him and sticking out my tongue (adult like, I know), he proceeded to tell me that when he was younger, he used to go fishing a lot with his grandpa. His grandpa would tell Rob's grandma he was taking the 'little man' fishing, and Rob would tell his parent's that he was going fishing with the 'old man'. They would sit out at the lake behind their house in Indiana and fish for hours, and when Rob would get excited about hooking a fish, his grandpa would say "Pull just a tittle Robbie, you don't want to yank his teeth out."

I haven't heard the word tittle in YEARS, and certainly have never used it myself. We like to think that since we were at Old Man's Cave, Rob's grandpa took the opportunity to say Hi, and make sure I didn't meet my demise by being a careless hiker.:)