Saturday, May 14, 2016

"The Bridges of Oregon County"

As a country boy, there are certain things that you take for granted. The school bus ride is going to be long...either going or coming. Work before play. Ticks, chiggers, snakes and poison ivy are a given...deal with it. The toilet inside the house is used...rarely. And learning to drive is as natural as breathing...

My Dad did not have the thought process that seems to prevail in our society today. School was for book learning. You played sports During school and When it didn't interfere with church, family and work, in that order. When you were needed for work, you got a day off school. whoopee...

One particular morning when I was fourteen or fifteen years old, Dad informed me that "You're not going to school today" (whoopee...) "I need someone to follow me home from Alton."

Dad worked as a clerk for an auction company and at one of the auctions, he had bought an old two-ton truck. It was a doozy! It had no tail-lights, no mud-flaps, no bed, no licence, no brake-lights... and no brakes. We're talking just about as road worthy as Jed Clampett's Jalopy!

We drove to the east side of Oregon County, past Alton (about 35-40 miles) in Dad's 1973, red and white, long-bed, Ford truck. It had a 300 In-line six-cylinder engine with a three-speed standard transmission and a "Three On The Tree" gear shift.

Now I was well versed in driving Dad's truck... but Not on a major highway, Without a drivers licence, Following a two-ton rattle-trap truck! However, it never crossed my mind to question Dad. You just did what he said.

We were clicking along pretty good when we came west through Alton. But it wasn't long until things almost went "South" (or east, depending on your sense of direction!)

As we went north past Wallace and Owens Supermarket, around a long sweeping curve; a car was stopped in Dad's lane, waiting to turn left into a driveway. (see the area on Google Street View here ) Remember what I said about the two-ton truck?... no brakes? Dad couldn't pass the stopped car because of the oncoming traffic, so he downshifted to second gear but couldn't get it into "granny" and the distance to the car was closing! Dad told me "I was eyeing that steep bank to the right to see if I could find a soft landing place!" At the very last moment, the car was clear, turned left into the driveway and Dad shot past their back bumper!

I motored along pretty good until I came to the stretch of highway just south of the Barren Fork bridge.
Now remember, I had had experience driving around the Homeplace and on some country roads but nothing on a pretty narrow, two-lane blacktop.

As I approached the bridge, I was considering just how narrow it looked. I was thinking I could just "take my part out of the middle" cruise on through without any problem. But just as that thought passed through my mind, barreling from out of sight, around the curve past the bridge, came a Semi-Truck and trailer! Even now, with almost forty years of driving experience under my... bohunkus, that would make me just a tad nervous. As it was, I was slightly... just slightly beyond nervous. That's all I had time for... It was too late to stop, let alone slow down, so I just grabbed the wheel with both hands and stomped on the gas (trying to "beat" him to the bridge!)
We met right in the middle! Actually we passed each other in the middle... I guess. I may have had my eyes closed! But the usual thing happened to me. When I got a mile or so down the road, I almost had to pull over because I got so weak!

We made it home without further ado and I kept off the highways until I "drove" to get my drivers licence... Which is a whole nuther story!

Saturday, May 7, 2016

Mom Had A Habit...

My Mother had a habit. Now it wasn't something deep and dark, that no one knew anything about. Actually it was kinda amusing!

When she was concentrating or vigorously working at some task, she would stick her tongue out of the corner of her mouth. I haven't got a picture of this, that I know of, but I believe it is genetic since I have seen it in some of her offspring...

As I was thinking of Mother's Day and how I missed my Mom, this little habit popped into my mind. Here are some of the times that this habit was on display... Opening a canning jar lid that was stuck - Stirring a pot on the stove to keep it from "sticking" - hoeing in the garden - pushing the grandkids in the swing. It seems like a small, humorous thing but I think this little habit reveals at least two great qualities about my Mom....

Single-mindedness and Vigorous Living.

Her single-minded goal in life was to serve the Lord and encourage as many of her family and friends that she could, to do likewise. It was her family, her friends, her neighbors, her church that she poured her life into.

Mom went at any task with a carefulness to detail and intensity that really can't be described. Not "Slam-Bang" "Get a bigger hammer" type of vigor. But the kind that washed the dirty dishes as she used them while she was cooking. The kind of vigor that supplied us all with handmade quilts of our own. The kind of energy that supplied HUNDREDS of gingersnap cookies to a generation school kids!

So...I'm sure that in her mansion in heaven today, the dishes are washed, the beds are made and there may even be a pot of brown beans on the stove...who knows?

And if Gabriel needs his horn polished? I'm sure Mom will grab a rag, stick out her tongue out the corner of her mouth and go to work!
One of my favorite pictures of  Mom...


Thursday, May 5, 2016

"And the crooked shall be made straight..."

Had a little accident Monday morning...

I was out setting monuments with my brother Ralph, and while I was putting tags on witness trees, I slipped and fell. I threw my hatchet and tried to catch myself with my hands. On my way to the ground, my right had skimmed by a tree, caught my pinky and bent it around.

We packed up and went to urgent care and after they x-rayed it, they found out it wasn't broken, just out of joint. The Doctor McCormack said he thought he could just pop it back in place and he very carefully bent it over and it "popped" (audibly) back in place!

Throughout all of this ordeal, I did not and have not had one ounce of pain. Thank the Lord! It is getting sore now but the doctor said in two or three weeks it should be good as new with full range of motion.