How internet urban myths are created.....

A friend sent me this email forward, and while it was a nice one, I started to wonder what I always wonder.....is it true? How much of it is true?

So to show you how this starts, here is the email forward text and then? The true story...Yes the true story alone would have been enough for some of us but email forwards like this one are "spiced" up to create feelings, emotions, a response. Why? Because for some reason whoever starts these don't think the "real" story is enough, when most times? It would be in the situations there is a real story behind them. Some of them are complete fabrications. Most of us pass them on not realizing what is true or isn't true. A few of us "snopers" like me, check some of them out and let people know either a) it is true, b) partly true or c) totally bogus......

I hope the picture will go through for you of this Army soldier in Iraq with his tiny "plot" of grass in front of his tent. It's heartwarming! Here is a soldier stationed in Iraq, stationed in a big sand box. He asked his wife to send him dirt (U.S. soil), fertilizer and some grass seeds so he can have the sweet aroma and feel the grass grow beneath his feet.

If you notice, he is even cutting the grass with a pair of a scissors. Sometimes we are in such a hurry that we don't stop and think about the little things that we take for granted. Upon receiving this, please say a prayer for our soldiers that give and give (and give up) so unselfishly for us.

You don't have to send this on, but gosh, who wouldn't...?









Now for the "real" story:

Warrant Officer Brook Turner, a native of Stayton, grew a miniature lawn on a U.S. military post north of Baghdad.

Now a photograph of the Army soldier trimming the grass with scissors has turned up on a Web site for hoaxes and another for urban legends, and its authenticity is being questioned.

"I never intended for it to get around like it has," Turner said via e-mail from Camp Cooke, "so it really doesn't bother me whether people think it is real or not."

He sent the photo to his wife, Kim, in Honolulu, where he is stationed with the 1st Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment and where she and their four children live. Last spring, he asked his wife to send him some grass seed because he missed the green he was accustomed to in Hawaii and before that in Oregon.

"I wanted to imagine for a moment I was home in my normal routine," he said. "Usually after work I will water in the backyard and listen to the radio barefoot, and just relax and feel the cool grass. I thought if I planted some grass I could still do that in a silly kind of way."

Kim Turner was happy to send her husband a little slice of home. She bought a packet of grass seed and a small hoe and mailed them with other goodies in a care box.

Brook prepared a spot behind the single-wide trailer he shares with a few other soldiers, lining the 3-foot-by-7-foot area with large rocks and adding some dirt.

"I did not make it wider because there is a walkway between trailers that everyone uses," he said. "I didn't want people to walk all over it with their boots."

As soon as the seed arrived, he planted it. He knew keeping the seed moist would be a challenge in the 125-degree heat.

The next morning, however, he discovered something else that would prevent the seed from taking root.

"Thousands of ants came from nowhere and had a little chain gang going, walking off with all my grass seed," he said. "I guess grass seed is like a chocolate treat to ants here in Iraq, cause every bit of grass seed was gone within a couple of days."

His fellow soldiers teased him about his failed project, but he was determined to grow a patch of grass. He talked with some Iraqis civilians authorized to be on post, and arranged to buy some sod. He purchased seven 1-foot-by-3-foot patches.

Turner watered his lawn three times a day. He used a 5-gallon jug he filled in the bathroom, where the camp has running water.

Once he saw the grass was flourishing, he wanted to e-mail his wife a picture of him tending his backyard.

Kim Turner wasn't surprised her husband had success growing the grass.

"He's my green thumb at the house," she said. "You can tell by the way my yard looks."

The Turners were high school sweethearts. They both graduated from Stayton in 1990 and have been married 11 years. They have a son and three daughters, ages 12 to 4.

So..if you get this as a forward? Pass it on, just remember to change it to the real story which demonstrates one of the reasons I respect our troops, when the ants stole the seed..... He didn't give up.



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