learning and discerning fact from fiction

As a young man of ten,i lived on a street in college park georgia that ended at the atlanta airport fence,often my friends and i would go under the fence and visit the airport terminal.I can still remember a huge vending machine inside there that dispensed cans of vegetable and fruit juices for 25 cents a can,even now,whenever i drink apple juice,i am always reminded of those long carefree days of summer spent roaming in the atlanta airport terminal.
In school that year,we had studied Joel Chandler Harris,an author not spoken about much these days,i suppose old Joel has suffered the fate of not being "politically correct" for these times.
Well we had been taught about him back then and even had a field trip to the "Wrens Nest" Mr.Harris's former home and at that time a very popular museum in Atlanta.After that field trip,i felt as if i knew Uncle Remus and all the charecters that Mr.Harris had writen about personaly,i guess you might say i was INSPIRED
with enthusiasm,so i suppose you can imagine my great surprize on the day that i rounded a corner in the airport terminal and spied none other than the man himself.
There was Uncle Remus,sitting in a rocking chair in person,he was surrounded by bales of cotton.UNCLE REMUS! i shouted excitedly,and ran toward him intending to hug his neck for wasn't this the wise old man whom told all of those wonderful stories?The patient all knowing one?the one who could actually talk to animals?But as i came closer i noticed that there was a crowd of kids lined up,with attendant adults,and there was a sort of rope barrier between the crowd and Uncle Remus also,i also noticed that most of these people were looking at me,thier attention no doubt being drawn there by my excited exclamations.Now having all these people staring at me had the effect of dampening my enthusiasm a little bit,so i halted at the rope barrier instead of just jumping over it,i needed to scope things out a bit before committing any more blunders that might make them stare more,or worse,laugh at me,so looking around carefully,i saw a man with a camera on a tripod,the camera was pointed at Uncle Remus and a small blond girl of about half my age who was just climbing onto Uncle Remus's lap,while her adoring parents sttod there looking on avidly.Once the child had gotten herself seated comfortably,Uncle Remus smiled broadly and looked at the attendant with the camera,there was the appropriate flash and Uncle Remus quickly ushered the child back to her parents and waited for the next one in line to approach him.
It then dawned upon me that this was an ersatz Remus,nothing more than a department store santa
and i turned sheepishly away and proceeded to that huge vending machine,placed my quarter in the slot and selected a can of apple juice,i drank that can of apple juice slowly,savoring that sweet tart taste of the cold juice,all the while vowing to my self to never be fooled again,for i had learned to discern fact from fiction.
Of course i have been fooled again, through these intervening years,many times,probably more times than the average person because i am still that same nieve little boy at heart,and you know what?I wouldent have it any other way.

Story ID:	3416
Written by:	Bobby O'neill Mitchum (bio, contact, other stories)
Story type:	Family Memories
Location:	Phenix City Alabama U.S.A.
Year:	2008
Person:	Self