The Wasp

So we stood there in the sweltering heat and watched for a few minutes, keeping our distance and ready to take off running should we need to. We never saw it move, not one little bit.

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One day when I was about five years old I realized something I never thought possible. I’d never seen my grandmother spank or even scold any of her grandchildren. We quickly learned that our dear little grandmother could and would, without any hesitation, deliver justice as she saw fit.

As such, my cousin, Randy, and I were the first ever recipients that we knew of anyway, of her justice in the form of both her severe scolding and even a spanking from her. Continue reading “The Wasp”

Our Cruise To Paradise

A cruise that changed two people’s lives

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Revised By Paul Yakes from the article written by Paul Yakes and Deborah Turner and published in the McKenzie Banner on February 12, 2003

Ours was a chance meeting if there ever was one – the kind someone reads about in love stories or sees in romantic movies.

It was a meeting that probably shouldn’t have happened, but it did. It was something far better than chance – we really believe it was our destiny; our fate or luck or whatever that we met. Whatever you choose to call it, one thing is for sure – our chance meeting was perhaps the best day of our lives. We thought it then almost twenty one years ago and we still think so. Continue reading “Our Cruise To Paradise”

My First Car

The interior was ratty; the headliner was drooping and unattached in several places. The tires were nearly bald. The paint was scratched, but there weren’t any dents; well no major ones anyway.

Like most sixteen year old boys, I couldn’t wait to get that one thing that would allow me to escape,

…that would allow me to find my freedom and see the world. Well, the streets of my small hometown anyway. Getting one’s driver’s license is no doubt one of the most exciting things for any teenager’s life. Mine was no different.

In 1972, it was a little different.

We didn’t have to worry about people talking on phones while driving and certainly didn’t have to worry about people texting while driving. In 1972, the term had not even been coined yet. The biggest thing we had to worry about was finding enough money to pay for the thirty eight cents a gallon gas to put into whatever we were able to get the keys for. Most cars didn’t even have seat belts and certainly no shoulder harness restraints. And air conditioning was an “option.” Continue reading “My First Car”

Two Baseball Gloves

After a few practices we were ready for our first game. The coach put me in at third base. I wasn’t very nervous but soon learned that playing the “hot corner” as I’d heard third base referred to, was not an easy position to play.

My love of baseball began at a very young age.

I was maybe seven or eight when my mother signed me up for little league. I wasn’t sure but once I got on the field I knew that baseball would become a lifelong passion.

I remember walking to the practice field. We didn’t have a car so we did a lot of walking back then. We didn’t view it as abnormal or anything. That’s just the way it was for us. So early one Saturday morning my mother and I began the four mile walk to the Eugene Field elementary school ball field. It took us over an hour to walk there to meet the coach and the other boys who were about to be my team mates.

Continue reading “Two Baseball Gloves”

The Spelling Bee

Then one day the teacher asked all of us students to stand beside our desks. We all did as told and were all looking around when she told us we were now going to have a test.

I started school in 1962. I didn’t go to kindergarten – it just hadn’t caught on yet where I came from.

I can still remember that first day of first grade. My mother walked me to my class that day. I’d never really been away from her very much and when I had, my grandparents were always within earshot.

I cried that first day and probably for the next few days until I realized that this was my new life. I was making friends and I was learning new things. I could already read and write some but I soon found myself not only wanting to go to school but eager to do so. I couldn’t wait for the next day to come.

Continue reading “The Spelling Bee”