Jane Bauman, Columnist

Years ago there was a lady who was a columnist for the Hutchinson News who I always thought had a pretty good handle on life. She's gone now; passed away in 1999...but this yellowed scrap of newspaper haunts me from time to time. I cut it out of the paper years ago and really like what it says.

If you'd like more information about Jane Bauman and her surviving family, you may click this link: http://www.hutchnews.com/Lifesmoments/bauman2009-12-26T19-27-25

Here's her column from many years ago, entitled Three Simple Words.

Sometimes parents, grandparents, teachers and others discover surprising things about themselves as they listen to the remarks of children with whom they are closely associated.

For instance, this summer when my children and grandchildren were vacationing here, frequently I heard three little words of an old family expression echo back to me.

One morning as I rinsed bunches of seedless grapes at the kitchen sink, Michelle, 10, poured milk into the kittens' bowl, patted their greedy little heads, and softly said, "There you go."

And as I chewed loose grapes from the bottom of the sink, it occurred to me that for many of us, those three words mean almost the same thing as the three little words, "I love you." They are like a little blessing expressing loving care.

There are times I hear myself say, "There you go," to the dog Cub after I've liberally swabbed her insect-ridden ears with fly wipe.

And always, after putting a Band-Aid on a kid's skinned knee or a dry diaper on a baby's wet bottom, I pat it. And as the kid scoots away, I say, "There you go!"

Or take the time son Mike fixed the hung-up cord on my living room drapes for me. As he smiled and efficiently swished the drapes back and forth, Mike patted my shoulder and said, "There you go, Mom."

And when I hand son Max a jar of canned tomatoes with a rusted rim to open for me, he unscrews it almost effortlessly and grins, "There you go, Mom, and don't put too much basil in the vegetable soup."

Or take a couple of weeks ago. As I walked past the old horse tank, which is now Cub's summer kiddie pool, I noticed a dead frog floating in it. Another big frog was still struggling. The water level had gotten too far below the tank's rim for frogs to jump out again.

So I angled a big board into the tank, and I watched the water-logged frog swim weakly to the board. Then, like a fat man struggling out of the deep end of a swimming pool, the exhausted old jumper finally got a leg up and heaved himself onto the board. And as he squatted, we blinked at each other in mutual relief, and I signed, "There you go."

Yep, the words, "There you go" have different connotations in different situations. But mostly I think they mean that we're glad we could do a helpful or right thing with tender loving care. Of course I could be wrong about my interpretation of why people say: "There you go." But one thing I know for sure: I never say, "There you go!" at 4 a.m. as I flush a cricket down the stool...