blade310
Member
Before I jump in to this one I would like to say a few things. If I had not hurt my back the other day I don't believe I ever would have taken the time to become familiar with this forum. Over the last few days I have read and explored alot here. I see that not to awful long ago this place was fairly lively and alot of good friendships were made. reading through some of the pages,the story's the responses and the postings in general I could feel the warmth and kinship that made this forum something nice and special for alot of people. It saddens me that much of that has seemed to have slipped away. I do realize that things change and you can't bring times like that back but I would sure like to see things pick up and see some new friendships established and maybe some old friendships rekindled or reborn.
Although I was not a part of what once was I would like to be a part of what is to be.It may not be possible to make this forum alive and jumping again.Its not something you can force.You can only plant the seeds and hope that it blossoms into something good. I for one will be here often. Any story that I may tell will be of true events in my life. If I ever decide to just go off on a wild eye popper that's not true I will let you know before hand. I guess I am kind of glad that I did hurt my back cause now I am here. This may be an interesting ride and it may not. Either way I am game
Wayne I am working on these here paragraphs. It does make things easier to read.
I go back again to my 8th year, at least that's where I'll start. We had a huge yard,almost as long as a football field and at least as wide. We also had a huge garden. It was at least as big as a football field. My older sister had a roadside produce stand for a couple of summers. Mom canned lots of stuff,Green beans, tomatoes, tomato juice. There is nothing better than a cold glass of home canned tomato juice. she also canned beets and corn and she canned a mix of vegetables that she used for making vegetable soup.She made great vegetable soup. A big bowl of that soup and a couple big slices of her homemade bread and I was heaven bound. another meal I have to mention Is canned tomatoes and peanut butter sandwiches. Now and then through the winter mom would open a jar or two of canned tomatoes and we would have a bowl with peanut butter sandwiches. Try to get the average child of eight today to enjoy any of those things....good luck. I know there are acceptions,some that would give anything right now just to have a meal regardless of what it was and that's a shame.
Mom usually made us kids something to eat around noon through the summer but I remember one afternoon when we all started gathering around the kitchen ready to munch on something she said come on. We followed her out the door and down through the yard to the garden. Five of us kids trailing after her trying to figure out what was going on. Kathey my older sister kind of hung out in her room most of the time and never really got involved with the rest of us. I remember my brother saying something about mom taking us way down into the garden and cutting one of us up and making the others eat him. I knew that was nonsense but I was always Leary when he said his off the wall crap just in case. And I think I bout wet my self when we got into the cucumbers and mom pulled a knife out of her apron. But it was just a little pairing knife and she reached down and snatched a cucumber off the vine and pealed it. She pealed one for each of us then pulled a salt shaker out of that trusty old apron and gave us each a little dash of salt on our cukes. next we headed over to the tomatoes. Us boys each got two tomatoes. my little sister Duchess was still tryin to hog tie her cucumber. finally mom took it and cut it in half down the middle for her. And that was our noon day meal that day.
We had a neighbor boy named Jeff that lived to the left of us and he loved to come over and eat breakfast with us. we were a big family and he was an only child our house was where the action was. mom could not afford the extra egg so he always brought his own. mom provided the toast or home made bread. mom would buy milk when she went grocery shopping ( I remember when I was really young a milk man would deliver bottles of milk.) Each one of us would get a glass of milk. Does anyone remember a TV commercial that showed a big silver truck and a song that went on about "Gotta get this milk to Lawson's in forty eight hours" ? any way we ate good and healthy and we all grew up healthy and strong. That would all change in just a few years but that's for another time.
Wow I really got off track there. we had another neighbor that lived up across the road from us named Billy and his nephew Donnie. he lived next to a big hill with a gigantic water tower at the top. We would go up there and play in the summer. We would cross Billy's yard and go through a gated chain link fence. Billy's dad built a little bridge across a very small stream. more like just a swampy area. cows roamed on that hill and they kept that area pretty churned up. once you crossed that little bridge there was a path that we took up along that muddy area finally up there a ways it turned into a real little stream and if you followed it up a hundred yards you came to where the water came out of the side of the hill. That water was ice cold and delicious.
here I am gettin all side tracked again. Through out the summer we had alot of clover in the yard and honey bees were every where. All of us boys got stung several times through the summer. One day Billy was down to play. I don't remember how this came about or what we were doing to cause it but for some reason a bumble bee, one of those big black and yellow bees got to chasin Billy. We always called them yellow jackets. We musta saw this one and started messin with it. I swear this thing went for Billy and he took off running. We started in the back yard and ran up into the front yard and around and back down into the back yard. All the time this bee was chasing Billy, Rick and I were running along side him laughing our tails off. We could actually see this bee about a foot behind Billy's head. I am sure that bee could have nailed Billy at anytime. Its like he was chasing him with out trying to catch him. That thing could have branched off and got Rick or myself at anytime but he didn't. Rick and I had both been stung by one of these big suckers before but Billy hadn't. If any of you have been hit by one of these bees you know what its like. I can only describe it as like being punched hard,real hard. and the pain man oh man the pain. As far as being up in the front yard,well we were just lucky daddy wasn't home. We were not to be in that yard unless we were cutting the grass. That was a sure enough drop you pants belt whippin'. He had a big old tracter tire that he had some how cut and made into a flower bed. He kept it full of marigolds. That was his show yard,it faced the road.
Getting back to Billy,When we came back down into the back yard Rick followed Billy and I branched off and headed for the back door. I went up the the four or five steps and yanked open the screen door and stepped inside. I held the screen door open and started yelling for Billy.He made a wide circle and came running . Rick slowed up and stopped about ten feet before the steps. About the time Billy hit the bottom step that yellow jacket nailed him right behind his left ear. It knocked him foreward but he didn't fall. He put his hands up on either side of his head and started flopping them real fast like he was trying to get air-born. And he started stomping his feet. This was just to much for me. I bent over laughing so hard that my sides was hurting and my eyes were full of tears. Have you ever laughed so hard and so long that you almost go from laughing to crying? That's where I was at. Don't know what happened to that bee. My brother the genius that he was got the idea somewhere that if you put mud on a bee sting it will draw out the stinger and therefore take away the pain. he grabbed Billy by the arm and started to pull him around the house to the outside spigot . It was always a little muddy under it cause we drank from it as we played out side in the heat. ( In the summer we didn't go in the house unless it was time to eat or one of us got hurt.That was the law.) we got Billy over there and Rick worked up a hand full of mud and slapped it on the sting and in Billy's ear. Billy went on awailin' so I guess it didn't work. He went running home with his hand cupped over his ear. I guess mom was probably down stairs doing laundry again.She spent alot of time doin' laundry and it was the only place that she would not have been able to hear all the racket.
I know this is dragging on and on folks but if I stopped and tried to come back later I wouldn't be able to do it. when I write something like this or tell something like this I have to be right down into it and be remembering things and bringing it all together and be in the moment . If I walk away and try to come back to it later I can't get back there where I need to be.
The reason I related this story of Billy's misfortune to you is because what happened to me at the end of that summer was, I believe, brought on because of the humor I found in his plight.At least that's what I thought for a long time. It wasn't long after school started and it was warm and sunny. the summer heat was long gone and the leaves were starting to change colors. Guess it was kinda like Indian summer. I love that time of year,did even back then. It was after supper and mom said I could go up to Billy's for awhile. He had hot wheels and the loop track. His mother came to the door when I knocked and said Billy was eating and would be done in a little bit. I decided to take a walk up the path on the hill to kill some time. I went through the gate and crossed the bridge. I didn't want to go to far so I walked up to where the little stream starts to spread out and turn all sloppy where the cows walk all over. I sat down by the little stream and leaned against a tree. I remember it being such a beautiful day and I felt so good and comfortable that I could have dozed off right there.I drew my knees up and put my hands on my knees and was happy with the world. I happened to look down and right there between my legs up close to my body was a hole in the moist ground. I didn't think much of it cause I had seen similar holes before. I believe at the time I thought it was a frogs hole. Silly me. a moment or two later I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and looked down. There was a yellow jacket on my thigh and two more comin' out of the hole.
I froze. I knew if I moved they were gonna nail me. Turns out I didn't have to move. They apparently had a game plan. they all went for my face. holy crap it was a night mare. They Hit me over and over again. I got up pawin' at em and screaming to beat ell. I finally got those little horrors all knocked off of me, either that or they decided I had had enough. I went full tilt down the path screaming my lungs out. Bout the time I got through the gate my eyes were swelling shut. Billy's mother came running across the yard to me and tried grab me yelling
" whats wrong? whats wrong?" I dodged her and kept on runnin. I crossed the road with out looking both ways and my dad was there in the yard and grabbed me by the arm and started shaking me and saying,"what the ells wrong with you? stop jumping around." Then he must of saw my face. He half lead,half drug me to mom who was standing on the front portch and turned me over to her. I couldn't hold still I was in so much pain. my Eyes were bout completely swelled shut by then. I heard mom say "Wayne we should take him to the hospital." Well he grabbed me and pried on of my Eyes open and I am sure I started screaming again. I'll never forget seeing my mothers face right then with tears rolling down her cheeks. I didn't understand why she would be crying. It took me a couple years before I understood but I finally got it. I don't remember what my dad said but I didn't go to the hospital. I was in total absolute misery for several days. I have been through some painful,miserable things since then but nothing even comes close to what I went through with those bee stings.
I had another run in with bees that I was also going to relate with this one but it was a few years later and better than a hundred miles away from where this happened and since I rambled on so long with this one I'll just wait for another day and start afresh with that one.
Thank you for your time and eyes
Although I was not a part of what once was I would like to be a part of what is to be.It may not be possible to make this forum alive and jumping again.Its not something you can force.You can only plant the seeds and hope that it blossoms into something good. I for one will be here often. Any story that I may tell will be of true events in my life. If I ever decide to just go off on a wild eye popper that's not true I will let you know before hand. I guess I am kind of glad that I did hurt my back cause now I am here. This may be an interesting ride and it may not. Either way I am game
Wayne I am working on these here paragraphs. It does make things easier to read.I go back again to my 8th year, at least that's where I'll start. We had a huge yard,almost as long as a football field and at least as wide. We also had a huge garden. It was at least as big as a football field. My older sister had a roadside produce stand for a couple of summers. Mom canned lots of stuff,Green beans, tomatoes, tomato juice. There is nothing better than a cold glass of home canned tomato juice. she also canned beets and corn and she canned a mix of vegetables that she used for making vegetable soup.She made great vegetable soup. A big bowl of that soup and a couple big slices of her homemade bread and I was heaven bound. another meal I have to mention Is canned tomatoes and peanut butter sandwiches. Now and then through the winter mom would open a jar or two of canned tomatoes and we would have a bowl with peanut butter sandwiches. Try to get the average child of eight today to enjoy any of those things....good luck. I know there are acceptions,some that would give anything right now just to have a meal regardless of what it was and that's a shame.
Mom usually made us kids something to eat around noon through the summer but I remember one afternoon when we all started gathering around the kitchen ready to munch on something she said come on. We followed her out the door and down through the yard to the garden. Five of us kids trailing after her trying to figure out what was going on. Kathey my older sister kind of hung out in her room most of the time and never really got involved with the rest of us. I remember my brother saying something about mom taking us way down into the garden and cutting one of us up and making the others eat him. I knew that was nonsense but I was always Leary when he said his off the wall crap just in case. And I think I bout wet my self when we got into the cucumbers and mom pulled a knife out of her apron. But it was just a little pairing knife and she reached down and snatched a cucumber off the vine and pealed it. She pealed one for each of us then pulled a salt shaker out of that trusty old apron and gave us each a little dash of salt on our cukes. next we headed over to the tomatoes. Us boys each got two tomatoes. my little sister Duchess was still tryin to hog tie her cucumber. finally mom took it and cut it in half down the middle for her. And that was our noon day meal that day.
We had a neighbor boy named Jeff that lived to the left of us and he loved to come over and eat breakfast with us. we were a big family and he was an only child our house was where the action was. mom could not afford the extra egg so he always brought his own. mom provided the toast or home made bread. mom would buy milk when she went grocery shopping ( I remember when I was really young a milk man would deliver bottles of milk.) Each one of us would get a glass of milk. Does anyone remember a TV commercial that showed a big silver truck and a song that went on about "Gotta get this milk to Lawson's in forty eight hours" ? any way we ate good and healthy and we all grew up healthy and strong. That would all change in just a few years but that's for another time.
Wow I really got off track there. we had another neighbor that lived up across the road from us named Billy and his nephew Donnie. he lived next to a big hill with a gigantic water tower at the top. We would go up there and play in the summer. We would cross Billy's yard and go through a gated chain link fence. Billy's dad built a little bridge across a very small stream. more like just a swampy area. cows roamed on that hill and they kept that area pretty churned up. once you crossed that little bridge there was a path that we took up along that muddy area finally up there a ways it turned into a real little stream and if you followed it up a hundred yards you came to where the water came out of the side of the hill. That water was ice cold and delicious.
here I am gettin all side tracked again. Through out the summer we had alot of clover in the yard and honey bees were every where. All of us boys got stung several times through the summer. One day Billy was down to play. I don't remember how this came about or what we were doing to cause it but for some reason a bumble bee, one of those big black and yellow bees got to chasin Billy. We always called them yellow jackets. We musta saw this one and started messin with it. I swear this thing went for Billy and he took off running. We started in the back yard and ran up into the front yard and around and back down into the back yard. All the time this bee was chasing Billy, Rick and I were running along side him laughing our tails off. We could actually see this bee about a foot behind Billy's head. I am sure that bee could have nailed Billy at anytime. Its like he was chasing him with out trying to catch him. That thing could have branched off and got Rick or myself at anytime but he didn't. Rick and I had both been stung by one of these big suckers before but Billy hadn't. If any of you have been hit by one of these bees you know what its like. I can only describe it as like being punched hard,real hard. and the pain man oh man the pain. As far as being up in the front yard,well we were just lucky daddy wasn't home. We were not to be in that yard unless we were cutting the grass. That was a sure enough drop you pants belt whippin'. He had a big old tracter tire that he had some how cut and made into a flower bed. He kept it full of marigolds. That was his show yard,it faced the road.
Getting back to Billy,When we came back down into the back yard Rick followed Billy and I branched off and headed for the back door. I went up the the four or five steps and yanked open the screen door and stepped inside. I held the screen door open and started yelling for Billy.He made a wide circle and came running . Rick slowed up and stopped about ten feet before the steps. About the time Billy hit the bottom step that yellow jacket nailed him right behind his left ear. It knocked him foreward but he didn't fall. He put his hands up on either side of his head and started flopping them real fast like he was trying to get air-born. And he started stomping his feet. This was just to much for me. I bent over laughing so hard that my sides was hurting and my eyes were full of tears. Have you ever laughed so hard and so long that you almost go from laughing to crying? That's where I was at. Don't know what happened to that bee. My brother the genius that he was got the idea somewhere that if you put mud on a bee sting it will draw out the stinger and therefore take away the pain. he grabbed Billy by the arm and started to pull him around the house to the outside spigot . It was always a little muddy under it cause we drank from it as we played out side in the heat. ( In the summer we didn't go in the house unless it was time to eat or one of us got hurt.That was the law.) we got Billy over there and Rick worked up a hand full of mud and slapped it on the sting and in Billy's ear. Billy went on awailin' so I guess it didn't work. He went running home with his hand cupped over his ear. I guess mom was probably down stairs doing laundry again.She spent alot of time doin' laundry and it was the only place that she would not have been able to hear all the racket.
I know this is dragging on and on folks but if I stopped and tried to come back later I wouldn't be able to do it. when I write something like this or tell something like this I have to be right down into it and be remembering things and bringing it all together and be in the moment . If I walk away and try to come back to it later I can't get back there where I need to be.
The reason I related this story of Billy's misfortune to you is because what happened to me at the end of that summer was, I believe, brought on because of the humor I found in his plight.At least that's what I thought for a long time. It wasn't long after school started and it was warm and sunny. the summer heat was long gone and the leaves were starting to change colors. Guess it was kinda like Indian summer. I love that time of year,did even back then. It was after supper and mom said I could go up to Billy's for awhile. He had hot wheels and the loop track. His mother came to the door when I knocked and said Billy was eating and would be done in a little bit. I decided to take a walk up the path on the hill to kill some time. I went through the gate and crossed the bridge. I didn't want to go to far so I walked up to where the little stream starts to spread out and turn all sloppy where the cows walk all over. I sat down by the little stream and leaned against a tree. I remember it being such a beautiful day and I felt so good and comfortable that I could have dozed off right there.I drew my knees up and put my hands on my knees and was happy with the world. I happened to look down and right there between my legs up close to my body was a hole in the moist ground. I didn't think much of it cause I had seen similar holes before. I believe at the time I thought it was a frogs hole. Silly me. a moment or two later I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and looked down. There was a yellow jacket on my thigh and two more comin' out of the hole.
I froze. I knew if I moved they were gonna nail me. Turns out I didn't have to move. They apparently had a game plan. they all went for my face. holy crap it was a night mare. They Hit me over and over again. I got up pawin' at em and screaming to beat ell. I finally got those little horrors all knocked off of me, either that or they decided I had had enough. I went full tilt down the path screaming my lungs out. Bout the time I got through the gate my eyes were swelling shut. Billy's mother came running across the yard to me and tried grab me yelling " whats wrong? whats wrong?" I dodged her and kept on runnin. I crossed the road with out looking both ways and my dad was there in the yard and grabbed me by the arm and started shaking me and saying,"what the ells wrong with you? stop jumping around." Then he must of saw my face. He half lead,half drug me to mom who was standing on the front portch and turned me over to her. I couldn't hold still I was in so much pain. my Eyes were bout completely swelled shut by then. I heard mom say "Wayne we should take him to the hospital." Well he grabbed me and pried on of my Eyes open and I am sure I started screaming again. I'll never forget seeing my mothers face right then with tears rolling down her cheeks. I didn't understand why she would be crying. It took me a couple years before I understood but I finally got it. I don't remember what my dad said but I didn't go to the hospital. I was in total absolute misery for several days. I have been through some painful,miserable things since then but nothing even comes close to what I went through with those bee stings.
I had another run in with bees that I was also going to relate with this one but it was a few years later and better than a hundred miles away from where this happened and since I rambled on so long with this one I'll just wait for another day and start afresh with that one.
Thank you for your time and eyes
