I tried not to lean against
anything. Leaning, I Feared, would give the wrong impression. It could
seem too casual. Sitting was also not an option. I also did my level
best not to make eye contact. This was harder than it sounds. When you
are surrounded by people with dentition that resembles broken picket
fences and forearms adorned with jail house style tattoos (some
apparently made by carving shapes into the skin then pouring India ink
into the wound) it's very difficult to look anywhere other than their
eyes. Fear causes this.
He seemed to bring back his
memories in full color HD detail in my mind. A lot of those stories are
fleeting at best, I am sure he added in his own little exaggerated
touches but back then it didn't matter. That is what Deer Camp stories
did for me in D&DH magazine in the off season too. My Dad used to call
my grandfather a bullshitter and never fully understood that till after
growing up and experiencing life for myself. I think this life needs
bullshitters to carry on that tradition of deer hunting we have all come
to love.
Finally, during the long New Year weekend, they'd done it. The
man told her to get out and she'd finally found the strength to take him
up on it. She woke Teddie up, told him to take his bike and go to the
new place, grabbed a few things, including Charlie, and walked out,
letting the security door slam behind her. She'd never told the man that
she already had a place to go, had had it lined up for weeks now, in
anticipation of this moment. Teddie would get there before she did, but
she and Charlie and what was left of her life wouldn't be far
behind. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Equinox
Slowly they drive a little further up the road, find an area along the
road side, they can turn around the truck; --cliffs being on one side
and an embankment on the other that lead down to the lake itself. As
they make their turn, they straighten out the wheel, press hard on the
gas and get the hell going to the strangers house. Job
4 is lift maintenance in Squaw Valley. Charles is the instructor who
will give David a run for his money. They will be testing and running
the lifts to ensure safety of all skiers. Charles is engaged and hopes
to go to Europe to ski on his honeymoon. David looks familiar to Charles
with his Joe Dirt hair and glasses. Charles keeps looking at David and
tells a fellow employee that he believes that David is Andy Wirth. With
his cover blown, Andy finds out that Charles and his crew are under
appreciated. They must be there without lunch or breaks to keep the
equipment running and cannot rest until it is operating safely.
My mother and father enjoyed much of their leisure time with
drive in movies, watching TV shows such as MASH, All in the Family,
Dukes of Hazard, and Andy Griffith. They enjoyed the music of Merle
Haggard, Freddy Hart and Conway Twitty. Lastly, they enjoyed fast cars
as well as many people did in the seventies. Drag racing was a fun event
for both my mother and my father. In the seventies my father owned a
1972 Ford Galaxy 500, 1970 Road Runner, 1973 Ranchero, and a 1976
buy
truck battery. The cost of a new
vehicle was around $6000. Over all, the most rememberable event for my
mother in the seventies was in 1977 when Elvis Presley died. To digress a bit, I need to tell you that Sgt. Grace lied. First,
the language I was assigned to study was Vietnamese. Second, after going
through the 101st Airborne Division's jungle combat school in Phan Rang,
I was assigned to the 1st Brigade, a reactionary unit. I joined them in
Dak To, and early the next morning was flown out to join an artillery
battery in what was called "Operation Eagle Bait". Didn't take long to
find out we were the bait, and Charlie was the eagle. The objective was
to tempt the Viet Cong into attacking us, then bring in an assault wave
of Huey's loaded with infantry, and wipe the enemy out. What I quickly
discovered is that there is nothing in the world comparable to the first
night you are brought out of a deep sleep by M-60 machine gun fire. 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. Remember: be
prepared, have an agenda and keep focused on the discussion at hand.
Involve everyone from partners to associates to staff and keep an open
mind to marketing ideas, plans and needs. But most of all... make it a
true priority to institute those strategies when the retreat
ends.