For me the
holiday season was always the most rewarding time of the year as a child
interested in hunting. I had every issue of deer and deer hunting
magazine to fill in during the non-holiday months. But hearing and
seeing hunting as a kid can never be replaced..those memories will stick
with you the rest of your years. During Christmas and Thanksgiving, we
started a tradition. My Grandfather, God rest his soul, used to sit down
after the meal and tell us of all the deer hunting stories he remembered
growing up. For me their was no better story teller that lived.
"Look here". He said.
"The first thing you need to learn is to never bite into a green chile.
When we test in the field, we never do that. Look here".
Along the roadside you can see
the shades of dark-green and black shadows along the grass, and the
crossing of shadows along the forwarding black asphalt road, as the
Ford-truck glides along.
straight
from the source
Considering cost of
living in her area in the seventies, her income was suitable. A new home
could be purchased for $25,000. A postage stamp rose from $0.06 in 1970
to $0.15 in 1979. I asked my mother if she could recall some prices of
the decade. She remembered bread being $0.29, gas $0.74 a gallon, candy
bars $0.05, soft drinks $0.10-0.15 a bottle in the early seventies and
in the late seventies prices started to rise. She remembered cigarettes
costing $1.00 a pack, cracker $0.29, milk $1.00 and most canned goods
$0.10. The dark
figure standing, staring by the street, is noticed by the two men in the
front seat of the truck, they stare but keep going, --trees blowing to
his right and left, the waves of the Great Lake of Superior, makes a
humming sound, and everything else, as if you were in the middle of a
hurricane, the stranger stands erect yet, never moving. He sees the eyes
of the passenger in the Ford-truck, a small figure, a man of about
forty, the driver calls him Skip, and he hears that. The taller man at
the wheel, his arms are solid, and frozen to the wheel, is called Amery,
for some reason you know he knows that.
Every year when my wife and I filed our taxes some things from MY past
(not hers) would creep up. If we filed our taxes on February 1st, we
were lucky if we got our refund in August. I had a
buy truck usa that had a manual transmission. My wife cannot drive stick
shift but I had to put her on my insurance because she is has a driver's
license and lived with me. If she had tickets or a DUI from the past, my
insurance would be sky high and I have never had any tickets and I don't
drink and drive. It wasn't a problem for us but it could have
been. Now, let's look at an example of how to negotiate a deal, any time.
Let's pretend (or maybe not) that you're one of the estimated five per
cent who are unemployed in the United States. You've done your homework;
written up a killer resume, and now you have some interviews lined
up. It all came back to her then, how he'd lain sobbing in his room
across from hers while the man raged in the livingroom, how she'd
slipped into his twin bed with him and wrapped her arms around him until
he was finally asleep, how she'd read chapters of "Charlotte's Web" to
him each night, how he'd raced on his bike through the dark streets the
night they'd finally made their escape. She'd let him in on it early on,
told him all about her plan to find a new place where it would be just
the two of them and how he wouldn't ever again have to lie awake at
night afraid of what was going on in the livingroom or of what he'd see
in the morning as he headed out for school. He'd told no one. It was
their secret. See,
when my dad had his injury, all of the resentment, rage and shame I was
feeling as a full time nanny, just melted away. When I see my dad taking
steps with shaking knees, just like my granddaughter, I know that God
has given me a great job. I am an angel, who teaches the art of walking
in the face of fear.