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.
Anyhow, I took the sergeant up on the deal he offered. After
three months with the 101st in Dak To and Tuy Hoa, I was sent on a
temporary duty assignment (TDY) near the DMZ to learn field station
operations from the 8th Radio Research Unit at Trai Bac Station in Phu
Bai. From there it was off to Pleiku where we worked first in support of
the 25th Infantry Division and later the newly arrived 4th Infantry
Division.
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. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Equinox
Chloe
was born on March 22, 2012 my second granddaughter. She has been a
blessing to me since the first time I saw her beautiful face. I am
graced with the ability to work form the comfort of my home, however, my
son has not been that fortunate. He is a welder and works 3rd shift so I
volunteered to be the nanny and take care of the baby while he and his
wife both worked. At 43 and having an 11 year old of my own, this life
checkpoint sort of threw me for a loop. As my eyeballs came back into focus, I watched him unfold the
same pocket knife and as he bent to retrieve another chile from the
plant, I prayed it wasn't for me. Realizing it wasn't I thanked the
great capsicum god in the Hatch volcano and considered crying.
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 head 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. My
experiences at the Shadow Bar occurred more than forty years ago, but I
still wonder if I should have reported the incident when I returned to
Engineers Hill. The end of the story is
we were able to get the lawyer for Ford Motor Credit to accept a much
lesser amount because he was trying to get a default judgment on his
fees. That was illegal here in Florida, so with his hands in the cookie
jar, he just wanted to get it over rather than have his name placed in
front of the Florida Bar Assn. It's hard to do anything. It's hard to button your pants or brush
your teeth, let alone jump off a three-story building into a pad. This
movie was the most physical thing I've ever had to do, and I had to do
it with a broken hand. It's the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my
life. Constantly having to take hits and fall and run through explosions
and get hit and beat up all day. Aside from my hand, I also got 25
stitches making this movie, in various parts of my body -- stuff that
had nothing to do with my hand.