Bigfoot's Continuing Adventures Thread

“Bill, I think that's your best story yet! When are you gonna write your book? I'm so happy to hear you're back out there. Good to see ya posting.”

“Yeah, Bill! :-) (my smiley says a lot more than words ever could for you)”

“Its always a pleasure to hear from you Mr. Foot.”

“BF, it may interest you to know that I still have - and wear frequently - the T-Shirts we had made for our 2001 Llama-Rama honoring you as our "Missing Man". I think of those days often, and long for the quieter, gentler times of TT (no, they weren't really that in the least!).

Evolution is the evidence of change. For you, the change has been good, and we all hope that continues, especially those of us in attendance at that famous hike. There may be few left to read these words, but memories prevail. It was good then... it's better now.”

“nice to hear from you Bill and I miss you! I'm back with my dad in Nashville. You can check out my myspace for more info and you can email me at the address on this profile.”

“Y`all, have no idea how much your kindness and far off feeling friendship has and still does mean to me. Though we are seprated by distances, the nearness I feel and felt towards some of you can`t be measured in normal ways. Distance is just that, it`s space between any two, or more things, but it has nothing to do with how close to you, or how deeply felt they are and how much they touch you and in what ways.

I often think about you silly folks and wonder how you`re gettin` on in your lives and I miss Y`all a lot from time to time and not many times do I go to the woods and not think about all of you and wish you and I could share the things I see then, or the things you see when you`re out and about.

I needed this place and all of you here for a time in my life and it was and still is wonderful to know some of you still hang out here. I was able to see the pictures of your adventures and trecks off into the woods and I read your encounters, your high spots and the low points of your adventures and it made me happy and sad at times, just like I was there too. I`m so happy you painted me there in the moment you were having and I got to read about your reflections of it all and got to see into your thoughts a bit more deeply.

Some of you are some strange critters to be sure, but I wouldn`t trade you for good ones, to do so would be trading down and I`d never do that,..LOL You`re all keepers!

I hope you All have wonderful hollidays and the new year brings with it new and wonderful adventures and the warmpth and happiness that lasts you a lifetime and then some.

Bill”

“Billy boy. Good to hear from you!”

“Glad to see you still hang out here, bro.

Merry Christmas.”

“I love this thread!
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmkay, I`m a knife sharpenin` fool and have pretty much used everything you can think of and some you`d never dream to. I love a good sharp knife and I can put an edge on one so fine I can skin a minute down and almost stop time and I have this one knife that`s so sharp I think I can cut time in half and almost give you back yesterday.LOL

I agree with most of whats been said here and I`m sure each of you have some fine edges on your knives too, but you all left out a tiny thing a true sharp knife needs. After a good sharpening, or after each time I use my knife I brush it back up with leather. That ol` leather-strap you saw your dads/grandpaws, or the barber/butcher, or whoever, was and still is the best way to keep a knife a true wonder and a treasure to own.

Face it, knives are one of the first tools mankind had and we haven`t yet lost our needs for `em even in all of this time and I don`t see an end to it either, any time soon.

I have used the stones, the ceramic sticks, rocks, bottles, steel, real rocks and in a pinch a fine file and if done right they all bring about the same results, but in varing degrees of sharpness.

Wuz a time not that long ago that a friend and I were out ridin` the back roads late at night, doin` a bit of drinkin`, a bit of thinkin` and to make a long story short, we ran over a deer with his two week old 4X4 pick `em up truck. Neither of us had a knife and the truck bein` new had no tools in it, or anything to dispatch the wounded deer. I did put the deer down, (broke it`s neck)and we were comin` out of the mountains and ran into a gamewarden that checked the deer for us and gave it to us.

We didn`t need the meat and we weren`t huntin` so, my friend knew someone that lived close by that was havin` a bad run of luck, lost their home to a fire, he lost his job and his wife had been in a bad wreck so, we took them the deer.

Naturally he was off with a friend for a while workin` out of town doin` construction work to earn enough to get back on their feet and she couldn`t clean a deer. I told her no problem, I`d dress it for her and cut it up faster than a cat could lick itself, if she`d just loan us a knife for a minute. Maybe it`s `cause of the fire, but if she had given me a dull butter knife it wouldda been better than what she did hand me. This had to be the worst knife I`d ever held in my hand, it was rusted, busted at the grip and had sheradded teeth, looks like at one time. It was maybe good as a tent-peg, but as knifes go it just wasn`t gonna get it done so, I asked her if she had anything else,.. Nope, she didn`t,..

I took the knife out to the back of the truck and tried to skin the deer, it was like pokin` the thing with a boat paddle. I kinda tore a hunkka hair offa the deer in two places, but never much more than a scratch to the skin.

I took the knife and set in rubbin` it`s sides under the rear bumper of my friend`s new truck, he just rolled his eyes at me and growled a bit when he wasn`t moainin` at me, or lookin` like he was suckin` a lemon, but after about ten minutes of that, I went to her crude front steps and used the concrete sides of the steps to finish puttin` an edge on that suckka and then I put the edges of that blade to the back of my work boots and back drug the edges for a time. That knife was so sharp it was scary and true to my word, I had the deer done up and over with by truck lights faster than I can type it.

It was good to help someone that needed it and it made us feel better about what happened to the deer too. We ran into her and her man some time later in town and she again thanked us for the meat, but her man came over to me and thanked me for sharpenin` that junkie knife and set in and told me he uses it for everything now and adores it and how sharp it has stayed. LOL

Just goes to show you, you can just make do and do fine!”

“Bill, why don't you come around more often?!
Thanks for starting my day off with a smile.”

“Good story, bf. I miss those posts...and the poetry.”

“I love your writing, Bill!”

“A dandy!”

“Good job, Bill. Miss ya!”

“Very nice. I always enjoy reading your posts.”

“Awesome story, bigfoot.”

“I wake up to the squeak and squak of my alarm clock that sounds like the neighbors are chokin` my rooster from across the fence and tryin` to muffle the sounds of it all. Oh, never mind, my alarm clock got misplaced under my clothes I set out the night before, but oh well, I`m awake.

I put my duds on go brush my teeth and hair and that`s the best I`mma look no matter what. I toss a few things together for a trip off up in the mountains out behind my place and in no time at all I`m off on another adventure.

Ever wonder why the drive to anywhere always seems longer? I do, but then I haven`t much else to do but ponder things like that and why the sky`s blue and the grass is green and why the washin`machine always eats one of every pairs of socks I feed into it.

The drive up in the darkness isn`t without moments of excitement, for me and for the critters I happen up on in the beams of my headlights. I see a few deer here and there feedin` along the roadsides where sprigs of green grass have excaped the frost and bite of winter. I also see the odd rabbit now and again scurryin` here and there tryin` to run outta my headlighs and back into the darkness. I also see two young racoons down along a creekbed on a red dirt road, they must be out on an adventure of their own, but they`re actin` a bit cameria shy, or they`re just not gonna stand in any place long enough to be something`s next late night snack, or early morning breakfast.

Before daylight can catch me I find my way to a place in the road I marked earlier on a treck to the mountains and I eased the truck over and killed the engine and the stillness of the moment almost drowned me. I just set there in the darkness and gulped down my eagerness to be out and on my way.

I eased outta the truck and fished about in the seat some and came up with a few biscuits and some ham I had tossed together and decided to take this time to snack and I enjoyed them with a few cups of coffee, while I waited for daybreak to catch up to me and kiss away the night shadows with each flicker of light that comes with it.

The stars were still shinin`, but very dimly, in no time at all they`d fade from my view as it grew lighter, but I watched them twinkle and wink at me, though they looked covered in a mist of sorts.

Dawn did finally make it`s way over the mountains and to me, but it was a disapointment, it wasn`t light and bright at all, but overcast and grey. As I fumbled and mumbled and stumbled offa the road and out into the woods, I noticed that right away I was climbing up and my ankles and the backs of my legs were in protest,.. Traders,..

I don`t know how long I walked along the ridge, seems in my haste to get out and away from the house I left my watch, but hey, at least I got away. I know it wasn`t yet noon, `cause my tummy haddn`t yet started to growl, groan, or grumble. I looked up and saw some boulders strewn across the ridge I was on and for no reason at all really I just decided to climb them, rather than skirt them, but as I got on top of a large boulder I was compelled to just stop and look around and first thing I know I was settin` there and kinda lost to it all. I wasn`t even aware of the vast beauty right then or anything, but it did seep in slowly as I spied a flock of wild turkies that scampered up and onto the ridge with me. It was a hoot to watch them take a sand bath and dust their feathers a bit, as some looked for seeds and bugs, or just scratched the earth. I noticed a few of the turkies noticin` me, but I stayed motionless and I guess they just figured I was an ugly rock and soon they forgot all about me and went on with their business. They stayed and ate and played for a while, but as they came, so they left and just like that I was alone again.

I was almost missin` their company when something startled me, I caught a glimpse of it outta the corner of my eye and I`m sure I looked like a school-girl as I musta jumped a bit and then giggled out loud when I realised what it was. I was a big fluffy cloud, floating up the side of the mountain and coming right at me, I don`t know how I failed to see it before it was on me like it was.

It was so beautiful and here was me moments before bein` grumpy because I thought the day was messed up for real viewing anything wonderful in the gloomy, overcast day. The cloud wasn`t as big as I first thought it was gonna be, but it took some time climbing up and over the ridge, it stayin` just a few yards from my reach, but that doesn`t mean it didn`t and haddn`t already touched me very deeply, it had. Then as the tail end of the cloud was about to go over me it seems like the cloud just slowd down and settled in right above me. My skin and clothes were damp, like I had run through long grasses laden with morning mist, you might know it as dew, but there wasn`t anything coming from the clouds that I could tell before that.

I don`t know now, thinkin` back on it, but it seemed like electricity was all around me andI felt even the hairs on my skin stand up as the cloud rested just above my head and I stretched up on tiptoes and ran my fingertips through it. The cloud was less thick than it appeared to be, but my body tingled like I had been shocked, maybe it was static electricity, I`m not sure.

I couldn`t believe my luck, it was like I touched the face of GOD”

“Hiya Sassy!

Good to see you`re still around here, I miss you and all the whacky folks here. I`m not on my computer anymore and this one hates me, it`s even more dyslexic than mine was. I wrote that first story about knives and then wrote the last one a few hours later on another thread and there was a thunder storm and the lights flickered a bit but I never lost power to the computer, or so I thought till I hit submit. Poof* it was gone. Made me mad as heck and then some. I couldn`t get back on the net till the next day after callin` our server and havin` to redo it all. By then I was pissed off about the whole thing and started not to rewrite this last one, but I got talked into it, but it`s not as good as it was the first time I wrote it, my heart just wasn`t into tellin` it twice. I guess I`mma have to start writing my junk down somewhere else and stop writing in that tiny box down here.

I`m glad you found something in it you liked,.. Thanks!


Bill”

“Bigfoot your posts are great. I have gone back and read all of them that I could find. The folks that have been coaxing you to formally record these stories are correct. You are a gifted story teller which is a noble and grand trait.
I can envision sitting on the porch of Oark or Catalpa general store in the late evening having a cold soda and listen to you spin a yarn. (Fill in any old general store with steps, and old dog, and some telling tales)
Keep it up!
I am a fan!!�”

“I found the true love of my life at long last and she thinks she wants whats left of my ol` broken heart, but that`s another story altogether and not the one I`m about to share with you here and now, but she plays a part in it.

Yesterday she found herself off of work and wantin` to see the mountains I have told her so much about, but as of yet haven`t found the time to show her. So, off we go, we gather up a few things to take along to make a day of it and a camera to record some of our findings and to capture some of our shared moments of the two combined loves I`m about to introduce to one-another.

Doesn`t take her long to see the mountains that peek out at us as we near them and she grows restless wantin` to touch them, not yet knowin` they`ll touch her as well and she`ll come away with a special bond all of her own with them, yet I too get to share in it and see her amazement in my old love. She drinks in the beauty of the day, the winding roads, the few animals and birds we see along the way, the mountain wild flowers that are in full color, the reds, yellows and pinks and blues, not to mention the flowering trees, such as the dogwoods in white blossems, the red buds and wild plumbs and cherry trees and she eats it all up like she was starving to death just for the taste of it all.

I watch her eyes light up as we round a bend in the road, the trees and the mountains hidin` till the last moments the next surprise to flash across her mind and eyes. She all but claps at her giddiness at times, the quick peek of a hiden lake as it appears through the distance, the waterfalls that are hidden even from that view till we get closer to the one thing that has fixed her stare and then by total sutrprise another waterfall, or deep emerald pool of water is there and still the hidden lake looms in the distance and us seeming to get no closer at all as we round one mountain pass just to skirt the ridges to get from here to there.

At last we do come into view of the lake and now we`re skirting it as the mountain pass leads up around the border of the lake and she sees ducks, beavers and geese and turtle out sunnin` themselves on logs and even up on the beaver`s home too. There`s wood duck boxex set out here and there in the shallows and on the side of the lake away from us she spies a log structure nestled in the hardwoods and evergreens and she asks if it`s a home. No, it`s not a home, just a place for folks to gather and weather out sudden storms the mountains seem to attract. The timbers are massive and must have taken many men to construct them and the benches mad from logs and even the tables. The views from inside there is breath-takin`. we squander some of our time there building our own memories of it and takin` pictures of this and that, before movin` on.

We pass campsites along the road climbing up as we go, some are hunters gettin` ready to turkey hunt and others are just camping, or up there with friends, they brought their horses and some brought fourwheelers and each finds their own happiness in many different ways. We came up on trail-heads along the way and I`d tell her what it looked like down each path and just hit the high spots of it all as we continued our climb up into the mountains.

Arkansas has been havin` weeks of rain and the rain has left many of the mountain roads all but impassable and here we are up there in a car so low to the dern ground it almost trips on an oakleaf. Some of you know me and that bein` said, you know I`m not one to fear, or fret much, that means I`m just not smart enough to see the real danger in things, until after I`ve survived `em, but oh well. Here we go! I see this road that goes to the highest mountain top on this side of it and I gotta show it to her. It`s the old ranger tower road and look out, back when they were maned and used for fire control. I had been up there many times over the years and to call it a road would be stretchin` the truth of it by a long shot even when the pig trail that it is was in better shape and the state spent money to mantaine it somewhat, but that was long ago and now they mostly have it gated off, but trees fell over the gate and someone had made a road around it and you know me, I just had to go up there and share it with her.

Geeeeebus, within the first hundred yards up the goat path it had turned into I knew I had screwed the pooch. There wasn`t enough road left to even guess that there ever had been any and no way to turn around without turning the car over and fallin` thousands of feet to a valley very far below. She was freakin` out, naturally, she was on the outside of the mountain and seein` it all up close like and she wasn`t likin` it all that much, thank God it was the oh sheeeeit handle and not me she had that death grip on. The further up we got the worse it got and I was steadly lookin` for any break in the grade to try and turn the car around and get outta there, but no such luck and luck being what luck is and mine always much worse than that, the road is washed out and there`s holes in it if the car slid into one of `em sideways, only a third of the car would be stickin` outta it... Geebus, here we go and I`m ridin` a tire on a razorblade`s edge at times tryin` not to highcenter that silly car and still it grinds and bumps under the car and I`m wonderin`, is that the oilpan, or the gas tank gettin` caught and I just knew we`d make the rest of the drive without a muffler. I`mma stop with that much and just tell you honest to goodness, it was worse than I have words for right now, but we did make it to the top and right off she`s all but in tears, she`s motion sick and not likin` me that much either.LOL

I do get her outta the car and we climb up in the watchtower and gosh-a-mighty-dayumn, you could see into the future offa there and part of the way back into your past. It was beautiful, but to say it was worth the drive up there would be tellin` you a lie, `cause we knew we were a long ways from being back down again. Know what? She told me, lets just leave the car here and walk back down. She was dead serious, worse yet, I had considered it too, but never told her so. I did ask her how then would we ever get the car back down,.. she said she didn`t care, the mountain could have it.LOL

As we started the car and were about to leave these two men in a 4X4 truck came up there, they couldn`t belive we got there in a car. We didn`t say much and left, I wanted to start down before they did, knowin` they were behind us gave me a lot of hope, I knew they`d have to help us if wwe couldn`t make it, or got the car hung up on a boulder, or in a washed out rut. Turns out we got down alright and left before they came down and saw three fourwheelers about to take the road up and knew they`d be there to help the truck if they needed it.

Now, you`d think havin` just survived that lil` mess I`d try to not get my silly self in a worse one, wouldn`t you? You`d think! NOOOO, here we go, I`m thinkin`, mmmmkay, the mountain roads are really bad sooo, lets take a valley road between the mountains. Here we go and wouldn`t`cha know, there`s rivers and streams through these roads that are lovely in late summer and the road even follows the river beds for a spell here and there. But, remember me sayin` we had had rain for almost two weeks without let up, yup,.. Geeeebus, we hit the first crossing of many and the car almost floats at times the wated is so high and swift, she`s freakin` out and I`m tryin` to make light of it, I didn`t tell her I`d been there many times, the thought of me havin` just said that goin` and comin` down the tower mountain road still haunted me. I just bit my toungue and not all just to keep from talkin`, it was partly from bouncin` our butts like a bobber down a run away river and her screamin`, there`s no road, there`s no road, we`re gonna die!

The one slim hope I held out was knowin` we didn`t have to come back this way, but I kept my mouth shut and about then things got worse, right about then we slid off in the next ragin` river and it looked like a white water raftin` commercial, `cept we didn`t have a raft, but now her car decides it`s tired of swimmin` and set in bein` a submarine and under the water we go, but I gun it as the motor almost stalls and we lumber out and up the steep bank on the other side. I said we slid off in there, yup, we did, her brakes no longer were an opyion, they were waterloged and just there for show only, I did use the emergency brakes to keep from kissin` trees and a boulder here and there in the crossings. I see light at the end of the tunnel, I see our salvation, high ground and only one more river to ford, but oh noooo, that`s not to be, someone has bouth the land we were about to cross and had tossed up a gate and a lock on it. I almost cried then and there, instead I just backed the car up a few hundred yards till I could turn around and we had it all to do over again. Geeebus!


Good times!


Bill”

“Bro, I have always enjoyed reading your posts. IMHO, they are among the best written here.

I enjoyed it. Thanks.”

“Bigfoot,

Major congratulations on the discovery of someone with whom to share.
I hope she shares your appreciation of the beauty of our Arkansas hills. This weekend was a awesome time to be out. The Dogwoods and Redbuds were blooming and the weather was awesome except for the wind gusts.”

“LOL, thanks Bill. And ya know ya can't be driving in flood waters. YIKES! People in cars in flash floods here last year DIED. Six of the seven deaths...

SO BE FREAKIN' CAREFUL and don't be gunnin' for makin' some fifties type-dead love song. LOL!
;-P”

“Thanks Chili!

I`m so glad you`re back and not banned. It pleases me that you find sumfun in the silly things I share here. It means a lot to me.


Bill”

“Thanks so much HBH!

I`m happy I found happiness again, or she found me and yes, she does enjoy Arkansas and wants to stack her dreams against mine and help to conbine `em.

Bill”

“Hiya Lizs!

Miss talkin` to you, hope to catch up sumtime soon,..


I`ve lived here most of my life and high water`s just a part of the trade off for livin` in paradise and so are tornados and bad roads.LOL

Actually, we didn`t have any choice about the rivers, once we had crossed the first one there was no turnnin` back, the road is just a gizillion year old wagon track and never wus a road as such at all, but I`ve traveled it lots and it`s in the mountains, where the head waters form, it never gets to bad to cross `em, `cept during a flood in progress, 30 minutes after a storm they`re still bad, but can be crossed, well, sortta.LOL

Take care!


Bill”

“Am hoping there was an awful lot of embellishment in that story. ;-P”

“LOL @ Lizs!


Actually there wasn`t, it`s all true and worse than that, but there`s no way I wanted to tell all that right here and now. I get over it a bit I think I will tell write the rest of that days events.


Bill”

“The weather looked bad as we set out that evening late, but we often fish in the rain and didn`t think much of it actually. It was hot and sticky, which is fantastic if it`s sex, but for weather it sucks. The wind did pick up a bit as we got to one of the rivers that help to feed the waters of Lake Millwood.

We unloaded the boat and got things squared away and in no time at all we were off into the murky darkness with only a spot light to guide us along our way. Darkness clung to everything and not a star was shing, but it still looked like a good night to be fishing.

We were both excited about it and couldn`t wait to get to our secret fishing spot and set up some yoyos and bait `em up with minnows and just haul `em in faster than it takes me to tell you all about it. We finally got there and got things going our way, but the wind picked up more and more. I asked my friend if he`d heard any weather reports and no, he haddn`t and neither had I, we`d both worked that day and hadn't listened to the news, or weather.

We had about a third of our yoyos out and already they were going up, one by one, you could hear the set spring zing and we knew we had fish on. We went on and set out most of our yoyos, but more and more were being tripped and we finally decided to go run the first ones and rebait `em. The crappies were big and fat slabs, some around three pounds or so and it looked like we were gonna mop up on `em and we did for a few hours and never did get all of our yoyos out.

Then it started to rain and lightening filled the sky and thunder rumbled again and again, gettin` closer and louder by the minute. The rain didn`t let up, in fact it got harder and harder and we haddn`t brought along any rain gear for such a storm and we were soaking wet and bailing water outta the boat even.

We kept fishing, but it was slower and the wind picked up even more and it was about all we could do to navigate against the wind and rain and we finally had to make a decision. We were either gonna have to make a run back up river and haul out and seek shelter in our pickup truck, or haul out on one of the steep banks nearby and weather it out right here. Well, about then the bottom fell outta the sky and it started pouring down rain like we were under a waterfall and it was all the two of us could do to bail the water out and keep the boat afloat. We headed for a high bank of the river and tried to haul everything up and over the top of it. It took us awhile to get the boat unloaded and then turn the boat over and drain the water outta it so we could haul it up and outta the water too. We decided we could overturn the boat and shelter out the storm under it some what.

That done we hooked up the spot light to the battery again and as he shined the light I`d dash out into the rain and gather what wood we could find so I could build a fire. Needless to say gettin` a fire started in that kindda weather isn`t easy, but I always pack some rich pine along with me and with that I got the wet wood to sputter to life after a bit and we just kept it going. The fire was close to the boat and it did help some, but then the storm got so bad the rain smothered it out mostly.

The sky turned green, the wind was screaming and the trees around us started breaking and limbs fell from trees and lightening still cracked around us, I couldn`t even hear my friend tryin` to talk to me, the storm was so loud. It was about then that we knew what kindda troube we were in, we knew this had to be a tornado and sure as God makes lil` green apples, we see it headed right at us and there`s nothing we can do. The wind gets so bad we can`t look at the tornado in the last moments of it, there`s to much stuff flying around and we get as close to the ground as we can and look away from it. It sounds like a battle is going on, cannon fire and all, the only thing missing is the scent of gunpowder in the air and the air seemed to be torn from my chest, well, maybe it was that, or the fact I was huggin` the ground so hard and maybe I just forgot to breathe.

And then just like that the wind got even worse, but not directed down on us as much as it had been, it seemed to be rising and then the boat was being sucked off of us and we clung to it and just like that, it quit trying to fly away and settled back down on us. It was a bit later that we figured out that the tornado picked up and left the ground, or it wouldda gotten us.

You`d think the worst of this was over and the worst of the storm was, but it`s back to being pitch black again and raining once more. We didn`t try to leave there until daylight, we just knew that trees were down everywhere and we prolly couldn`t get the boat outta the river without a chainsaw to cut downed trees so, we just made do and waited for daylight to catch us.

As it got lighter our hopes improved, but the cold got worse for some reason, I guess the scare of it had faded away and now the thing that had us scared numb let the cold fill us. I couldda chewd through a tree like a beaver, my teeth were chatterin` a mile a minute as we crawled out from under the boat and looked around in the early morning light. As fast as we could we put the boat back in the water and reloaded it and hauled butt outta there, we got hung up on a few trees that were downed, but mostly we were able to go around them and when we made it almost back to our truck we heard and met other boats coming towards us. It was folks out tryin` to rescue us, but we didn`t know it just then. I`m not gonna lie to you, I was tickled to death to see `em and know that things in town were alright and to share their coffee and laughter, yanno, right then I didn`t mind them teasing me one bit,.LOL


Good Times!!”

“It's good to see you are still hanging around, bro.”

“Ahhhhh...one of my favorite threads. Thanks for posting that Big Foot. I enjoy your writing.”

“glad you made it through, and good to see you again. haven't seen one of your post in ALOOOONG time”

“Gee, it`s nice to see folks I still remember here, I hope you are all well and happy,.

Thanks for the comments,..


Bill”

“good one.”

“We had been married for close to four years and had our first son already and we were expecting our second child of the three we ended up with. Children are a true blessing and a gift of love in themselves, if not formed from love itself. Luckly, our three kids were all love gifts we were graced by.

Times were very hard in rural Arkansas at the time, no real industury close to us back then, but we got by and did fine with what we had. I had to fish and hunt to supplement our earnings and that was fine by me. I loved anything that had to do with nature, or being outdoors.

Jobs were hard to come by, that paid anything, but I always managed to find work and stay busy, trying to make ends meet. The jobs I had didn`t afford us the luxury of insurance so, we paid the doctor and hospital debts off we concurred having our first son, a payment at a time. We were hitting bottom real fast and had run out of almost everything in the house and we`d already eaten up the things we`d grown in the garden and canned for winter and it was only fall so, we just did without things like fresh milk, coffee, coking oil, salt and pepper and lots more, but you get the picture. The one thing we did buy was food and things for our first born and we gladly did without so he wouldn`t suffer and he didn`t. He never knew it, not even later on in life, no one did. We were to proud to tell anyone we were having hard times and we couldn`t bring ourselves to ask for help. I`m from a very large family and they would have gladly helped us out and she had family too that would have helped us also.

The days turned into weeks and then into months and we were just gettin` by, but hunting season was just starting and we knew I`d be able to gather food enough soon. Heck, we didn`t even have money for gas for the car and truck both at the same time so, we decided it`d be best for her to just drop me off in the woods out west of town and I`d camp out and hunt and she would come back and check on me on Wednesday night, after church, since she would be going to church anyway and out that night.

I spent every daylight hour out in the woods trying to hunt and kill enough deer to keep us in meat for a while. Any other time I would have been so happy to be out there hunting and camping and enjoying nature, but with things like they were, I was so worried all of the time that I might not be sucessful with the hunt and just bring on more bad luck to us.

It`s needless to say that with all that time to myself I found plenty of time to talk to God and it sure seemed like HE was listening to me too and at times it was like HE was speaking to me and I`d hear HIM whisper to me, when the wind sturred through the pine trees. It took some time for me to actually listen though, my mind was so full of my own problems and I had to first just let go of things and pay more attention to where I was and why I was there. When I did it seemed like I had just woke up, I looked around me and for the life of me I saw what really mattered the most and just that fast it was like I could breathe again. I haddn`t even noticed how heavy my chest had been, till then. I just quit worrying and started enjoying being there in the moment.

My luck changed almost right away and I killed a big fat buck and lugged him all the way back to my camp on my shoulders and then to an old dry well that was even further back in the woods. There I secured a rope to the buck`s back leg and then lowered him into the well. I knew he would be fine there, like being in a celler and the meat would stay much colder. I added another buck to the first one, the next morning and then got very lucky and filled my last tag the evening before she was to return and check on me.

A few hours before she was to arrive I set in and skinned the three deer and cut the meat all up and packed it out to the road just ahead of darkness. I even had time to gather up the makings of a fire and so I did and I fed twigs to the embers while I waited the next few hours for church to be over with and for her to return. In many ways, I had church of my own going on right out there by myself. I gave thanks for all my blessings and begged forgiveness for my transgressions too.

She finally did arive and it was so good to see her and my son again and to be going home. I still remember how happy we were, just like we were rich and us so happy when we had nothing except ourselves. It`s odd that we don`t always see our blessings as such and I was guilty of it too. It`s the hard times that seem to stand out the most and make us thankful and humble and those are the times that later all other things seem to be measured against.

Things did get better for us after that and we never again came even close to doing without things. No, you can`t live on love, but doing without things makes you take stock in the real things that matter most in life.


Good Times!


Bill”

“...that was AWESOME!!!!..thanks for sharing...& continue writing...please!!!”

“Very nice! Thanks again.”

“Some things just happen so fast, if you blinked an eye you`d miss it all and never even be aware of it at all. Like train wrecks, or moments of danger, they happen so fast and yet part of the time we`re not even aware of what all did happen and take place in the span of nano-seconds. Isn`t it odd that at times wrecks, or near death moments seem to just drag on and it`s like it`s being played out in an old slow motion picture show? I always heard of it and believe me, it`s true, you`re never as much alive as you are in those last few moments of sheer danger, or near death. That in itself should tell you that it`s rare and the time you have until impact is precious time, time to even reflect on the past a bit and time to almost predict the future, if not the near future and how this bad moment might be played out. There`s even times when I was knocking at deaths door that it was like I was standing back and just watching it all unfold and at the last moment I could change it, if I didn`t like how it was going to end and maybe even cheat death just once more and I did too, yet other times I had no control over the event at all. It`s kindda like skidding out on ice and you`re hopless and hepless to do anything about it, `except hang on and enjoy the ride, or go kicking and screaming at the top of your lungs. Heart pounding, lungs about to burst wide open and your whole body jolted with electricity and every nerve ending tingling and every hair on your body standing up. You don`t have time to be scared, but oddly enough you have forever to feel stupid and to regret it all happening to you. All the things that seemed to matter just moments ago vanish and are replaced with new values, like I wish this was a dream, I wish I could tell my family and loved ones goodbye, why am I so stupid and the list goes on and on.

Then comes the moment of impact, in the form of a brick wall, a jolt of electricity, the bone crushing fist, or baseball bat, or the ground rushing up to meet you, or the lack of air, they all just hurt then and there, but luckily there`s shock and shock only takes place if you`re not instantly killed out right. There`s the shock of how this is gonna end, but the real shock is what your mind and body go into and for a bit of time pain hasn`t caught up to your silly butt, oh but it will soon. But not for a fraction of time, that can linger into about a half of an hour for me, but then I have a high tollerance for pain, I can actually stand someone else`s pain even longer, but that`s a whole different story and it has nothing to do with this.lol The shock starts to wear off and with it you feel the pain start to fill you all over, but in some places more.

Fear finally comes into play now and all of a sudden you are actually worried and wonder what, if anything you can do, or should do and how best to go about it. Fear has a sidekick, it`s panic and the two are closely related, or seems like it to me, it seems like fear has a shadow and it`s name is panic. You fear that you only have just so much time to help yourself, or to get help. If you can bite and fight back the fear and go on with the plan that forms in your mind, then panic lessens some what and you think a bit clearer and often manage to do the right things, for once.

If panic grips you then you`re all but lost, your body doesn`t wanna react to it, it simply wants to shut down, or stop and just let things happen as you hide from it. Panic can spur you on too though, but it often makes you make mistakes and run willy nilley into more trouble, or problems.

Pain now eats at you and you feel everything, every broken bone, ever bruse, every torn bit of flesh and they all ache, but pain tells us we`re alive and thus far have cheated death. I should love pain, but so far that hasn`t happened.lol

Help and hope come in many forms and you never know how a book ends till it`s over and that`s how to best describe the first moment when you know you are being helped, it`s such a reliefe to have someone besides yourself tryin` to save your silly butt. It`s true, God sends us Angels as we have need of them and they often take the strangest forms and wear many different faces and show up in the oddest places.

Recovery takes time, I just hate that saying, but time does heal all things, or in time we forget, or we ourselves are forgotten.

In the blink of an eye everything can change for you, or you might miss it and not even know you came just this close to a near death experience, or almost had your whole world changed for the better. It might be a wink from a stranger that flashed by and you just missed it and they were the true love of your life and with them your happiness.

While you can, take time to slow down and enjoy the things you missed, or mightta missed seeing closer. Love is such a tiny word for all the things it has to be thrown over like a blanket, but love is a wonderful thing, it has no ends, no bounds and when given freely it has no measure and you never know the reach of your love, or those that might also be touched by it and in the ways they carry it away and how precious it is to them.


Things sure happen fast, we grow up and grow old at the same time, thankfully we grow smarter too, it`s true, what doesn`t kill you, makes you stronger.LOL


Bill”

“It was the first week of October and I had killed a deer a few days earlier, with my bow. A good friend of mine haddn`t had any luck yet and wanted to use my treestand. It was a homemade stand and light as a feather, it weighed about the same as my gun did, but this was bow season and you had to get close the the deer trails to have any chance at all getting a shot.

I agreed to let him use my stand and we decided to go fetch the stand out of there and erect it where he wanted to hunt. Over the course of the last few weeks I had been in and out of that spot several times and the deer path I walked in on seemed tame. I let my friend go ahead of me, just wanting to see if he could follow the trail without getting off of it. He lost the trail a lot and I was laughing at him and I was teasing him about his tracking skills and all of a sudden he freezes right infront of me. I ease up on him and ask him if he`s lost again and he whispers to me that he`s almost standing on a snake. I look past him and sure enough there`s a velvet tail rattler just a few feet from him and it`s coiled and lookin` him over good. I look around sum and find a sturdy limb that had fallen from a nearby oak tree, prolly the results from a recent storm, or something, but it`s just what I needed. I reach past him and bash the snake`s head and don`t think much about it. He wants the rattlers and cuts `em off and pockets `em. He starts off again and just about as quick he stops dead still again and starts backing up on me and almost right over me. I`m confused, but I`m like that a lot anyhoo, but he starts freaking on me. I look past him and sure enough, there`s two snakes there and they`re after him, but now he`s behind me. Thankgoodness I kept the stick and I bashed `em both in the head as they neared me. Geeebus, what in the world? Three snakes in less than 40 foot of eachother was odd and even more so for the place we were at. I`d never seen that many rattlers there in my life time.

There wasn`t any gettin` my friend to lead the way after that so I broke trail and gosh a mighty dang-it we came up on three more snakes before we reached the stand. My friend could help me a bit. His gase was on the ground and he couldn`t tear his eyes away long enough to help me get the stand down so, I did it myself, while he stood guard with the stick.

I was still laughing at him and teasing him about being a big girly and all, but he didn`t care. We started back out the way we came in and wouldn`t`cha know it, we killed four more snakes going back out to the road.

That was very unusual I have to admit it, I`ve never seen that many snakes gathered up in one place like that and it not be a den, but it was hot for that time of the year and those snakes weren`t even fall blinded like most snakes were at that time of the year.

Now, I`m not afraid of snakes, but for some odd reason, I never did put up a stand in that same place ever again and come to think on it a bit more, I haven`t even hunted near there since that. I`m sure my friend would try and laugh at me and tease me and call me a lil` girly if he knew about it too. Tell you what? We`ll just keep this a secret, just between you and me,..okay?LOL


Good Times!”

“Sooooo, I was writing something at the computer and deep in thought, well, deep for this shallow mind anyhoo. Then outta nowhere there`s a crash bang and my heart about jumps outta my chest, not so much from the crash bang stuff, but my dog that was sleeping right next to me got woken up by the comotion and sets in and screams like he`s being murdered right then and there and right up under me. Gosh a mighty, I about had a holy revival moment then and there, but more than likely it just scared the hell outta me and I mightta just cussed a blue streak and then some.

Well, I shush and hush the dog and call him a chicken and stuffs to bluster up my own missgivings and then look back towards the fireplace where all the comotion had come from. The board games that adorned the mantel were strewn all over the place, marbles and checkers and dice were here and there like the aftermath of a 1920`s raid on a speakeasy, or summit.

I set in and start gathering up stuff and wonder what in the heck couldda caused the mess in the first place, but I don`t see anything to hint at it`s cause. I get about half of it cleaned up and there`s still marbles every where so I set in gathering them up and puttin` `em back where they belong and I notice that many are still clinging on the mantle board over the fireplace and I set in gathering them so they don`t fall as well.

I get a full handfull of `em and set in loading the other hand up too and just happen to look again as a marble rolled back away from me, but it wasn`t a marble. It was a snake`s head and coiled and as I saw it strike I pulled my hand back and jumped from the den to the living room in one fell swoop and the whole time this ear piercing screem filled every empty nook in the place and even over flowed into my left ear and out the right one. Heck, it was me screaming like a lil` girl and all the while not knowing I`d just set an all time best world record for an indoor long, high and broad jump.LOL

I was shaking like a frilly nighty on a clothesline in a tornado and all of a sudden I bust out laughing so hard the dog screamed again.LOL

I took stock in things and peered back at the fireplace and sure enough, there`s a copperhead snake sticking it`s tongue out at me and tasting my fear. Abit more of that excitement and he couldda just smelled my soiled shorts, but luckly that didn`t happen, I had enough mess to clean up, but not before I got that thing outta my house.
I spied a claw hammer and went after the snakes head with that. Naturally, I MISSED,.. but it tried to slink back under a board it mustta been hiding under till then and I nailed him, litterly. After 9,853 hits to his head I decided we had both had enough of this and whoever was still standing should go build a pot of coffee and then see how things looked with some light on and easier breathing. I was panting like a dog.

I still don`t know how that dang snake got in the house, the best I can figure is it`s one of the many my three kids drug in there and let get away over the years. Now I`m not afraid of snakes as a rule, but that time my nerves were on edge to start with, from the crash bang, the dog screaming and just the suddeness of it all happening like it did in near darkness. Did that sound convincing??? Well, that`s how I`mma tell it anyhoo.LOL


Bill”

“Keep writing, bro, and I will keep reading.”

“Now thats a good read LOL”

“LOL...scarey stuff!!!!”

“..I love your stories!!!....keep em coming!!!”

“I had a fantastic life growing up. I grew up as a cowboy on a sure nuff working farm/ranch and we had pigs, chickens, milk cows and regular cows and horses. There were orchards too, one was over 85 acers of peach trees and the other one was about 7 acres of apple orchards. We had pear trees and plumb trees and wild cherry trees and chokecherry trees and mulberry trees too and a few pecan trees and mixed hardwoods and pine plantations and here and there we had pinds and creeks on our place. There were all kinds of berry bushes too. The pastures were full of red top clover in the early spring and long tall grasses in the summer month, grasses like johnsons grass and blue grass, rye grass and so on. We had fields we grew crops in too and even a large lot set aside for gardening.

We had a great big packing shed where we packed and shipped our peaches and apples from and many barns with lofts and side sheds and farm help quarters too.

I`m one of nine kids. I have three older sisters and then me and then I have five younger brothers. We grew up very close and always had a blast when we could skeak the time away from work, or chores, or after dark mostly. The nine of us kids were born in ten years. Poor mother.

My oldest sisters are just ten months apart and mother didn`t want them going to school together so she let the oldest girl start school and then the next year she sent my second sister. My third sister was only five the following year so mother kept her home and sent her to school the next year. I`m only 13 months younger than her and again my mother didn`t want us going to school together so she kept me at home and sent me the next year.

I was almost 7 by the time I started school and by that time country living had taken roots in me and I didn`t wanna go to school. Why should I? I knew what I was going to do today, tomorrow and the next day and the rest of my life. I was gonna be a cowboy and a farmer. Why do I gotta go to school?

My best pleas and well thought out scheems to avoid school fell on deaf ears, my mother wasn`t hearing a thing I had to offer up and my dad wasn`t much help either, come to think back on it. Now that I think back on it, it seems all he could offer up is, it won`t hurt you any to get an education and that smile, I never saw that man smile till then. I didn`t know he knew how to.

My first day was shot in the foot from the get go. I was hauled outta bed before the buttcrack of dawn and given a list of chores I had to get done with pronto. I got the cows fed, fed the pigs, the chickens, I didn`t gather the eggs, my younger brothers could do that later. I milked the cows and fed them and the horses, hauled the fresh milk in the house and took the old blue milk out to the hogs and baby pigs. I got tossed in the tub and ordered to hurry the hell up.

I think a slice of toast was cramed in my mouth as I was trying to get my shirt and pants on over my wet skin. Heck, I didn`t learn to dry off till I was a teenager, if then. Then the three sisters set in teasing me about school and how bad it is and filling my head with stuff to be scared of, things to do and these things not to do and on and on it went. My mother was giving me orders too and she was stuffing notes into my pockets and putting milk money and lunch money in my pants pockets. I don`t think I had ever been talk to so much at one time in my whole life and for the life of me I didn`t remember a dern bit of it. Oh I knew it all and resaid it back to `em right up to and until someone screemed here`s the bus and my mind went blank and stayed in that mode.

I get about half way out to the bus and mother calls me back for something, but Heaven help me then, or now if I canor could remember it. I finally get on the bus and wooosh, we`re off in a haze of dust from the dirt red clay roads that form most of Arkansas. Now I still haven`t even gotten a seat yet, I`m still standing down the steps and watching through the glass windows at the door at the ground whizzing by and the silance is broken by this gizillion year old grandpa driving the bus. I guess I didn`t make much of an impression on him either, `cause he up and tells me to get the hell outta there and find a seat, or he`ll toss my ass out a window. Wasn`t this gonna be fun?

I climb up the stairs and take off down the rows of seats and most are already filled and the ones not filled there`s someone in `em sayin` they`re saving it for a friend. I get almost to the back of the bus and it`s the same thing. There`s this tiny boy settin` there, he`s not big as a popcorn fart and he up and tells me he`s saving his seat too. I glare at him and plop down beside him. Yanno what he does? He hauls off and gives me a left uppercut to the chin so hard I see stars and it`s light as day and all. Geebus that kid hits hard, but I unload on him and beat him to a pulp, or almost anyway, till I feel myself sailing through the air. Seems he has an older brother that`s not any friendlier than he is. He sets in a beats me and stomps on me some more and then kinda gives up and goes back to his seat and leaves me there gasping for air.

Well, I`m not a quitter so I just haul back up and go plop right back down by that boy and we glare at eachother a spell and then he up and calls me a damnyankie. I just laught at him, I`m not sure what he just called me, but I knew I wasn`t one of those and figured that must be the reason we didn`t hit if off, he just had me mistaken for someone else.

I get to school and more or less thrown offa the bus and I don`t know where to go, or what to do so, I just toss my stuff to the ground and find a place to spend the day. That`s not long lived and after a bell rings and everyone goes away, I`m there alone for a spell till this teaches sets in and starts screaming at me from the moment she saw me right up until she`s looking me eye to eye and asking me a zillion questions and I don`t know the answers to any of `em. Just my luck.

She hauls my silly ass to the office and they ask me my name, I just tell `em Bill,.. They ask me if I know my last name, I shake my head yup. They kept askin` me and I kept shakin` my head in agreement, but this didn`t seem to please `em any at all. Then they set in and ask me if I got folks and I up and say sure I do and they ask me if I know their names and I say sure I do and they ask me what their names are. I up and ask `em who? They say your folks and I say yes. Then they scream at me a bunch and finally ask me if I know their names and what I call them and I said YES. After a long time of this, one asks me, what do you call your mother, I up and tell her, I call my mother Mom and they laugh at me and ask me the same thing again and add what do you call your father. I tell `em the same thing for Mom and for my father I call him Dad. Yanno, then they set in and asked me again, do you know your last name, I said yep. You never heard so much cussin` and fussin as I did then and there.

In a bit the big dude approaches me and he`s grinning at me and asks me if I`ll walk with him, I answer sure and off we go. He hauls me to ever room in the joint almost and every time it`s the same thing he says, he asks me if I know anyone in this room and I say no, he asks the room if any of `em know me and they say no and on and on it goes till we hit this room where my sister is and she up and lays clame to me and says she knows my,last name too. All that fuss and just over my last name and just as soon as my sister said my last name I remembered it too.

Well, this gets the big dude to laughing and by now I`m guessing he`s not so bad as all those screechy women were that kept after me like they did and he up and hauls me back to the office and looks at some papers and then comes over to me and tells me to go with him and he hauls me down the hall and to a room that he informs me and the teacher and kids there that this is my room and he leaves me.

That teacher sets in on me then and there and spouts off some stuff about rules, times to be there and who knows what else she spewed at me. Then she up and asks my my name, I tell her, Bill. Yanno, that`s not good enough for her and she up and asks me if I got a last name and I say sure I do. She asks me what is it? Dadgummit, my mind went blank and I forgot my last name all over again. All that and it`s not my second hour of school yet!LOL”

“lmao....hahahahahaaaaaa”

“