Stories I'll Bury In Bloompatch
A Baby Boomer Remembers 1960
by
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“Where did you learn to fight like that?” Mom’s voice was full of pride and not anger, which kind of surprised me.
I thought about telling her that every kid I know has countless opportunities to practice the manly art of self-defense every day in the peaceful little town of
I thought of telling her that bullies are an everyday reality, that boys who meet for the first time almost always have to roll around for a while to see who is the toughest, that I fight with my brothers and neighbor kids all the time, that there are bullies at Catholic school and at backyard circuses and on the way home from school. I thought of the bullies who are adult, the George Deatrich’s and the Kiel Jaeger’s and the Father Hitler’s and the Sister Austere’s. I thought of passing on a great truth I was coming to realize, that life itself is one big constant fistfight.
But I decided Mom was not ready for the truth about a boy’s world yet. “I don’t know, Mom.” I shrugged. “I guess I saw it on TV or something.”
It’s been quite a year. Mom stood up to the Norton’s. I took on the big kid at the park and got help from my big brother. Maris is streaking toward Babe Ruth’s record. There is a good chance Disney will use Hayley Mills in another movie real soon. Catholic school is still a good month away. The county fair will be coming to town in August.
The warm sun feels good when I walk out into it on a summer day, especially when I’m standing on a baseball field. Life is good in
I guess I’ll leave you with something my Dad said to me the other day. We were playing catch with one of those miniature footballs in the front yard and I guess he was feeling kind of like he should share some wisdom. Out of the clear blue sky he said that there’s no part of life that doesn’t teach a lesson if you keep your mind open to it.
I suppose Dad is right. We learn from reading books and from listening to our teachers, but we also learn by living with people and listening to what they have to say and what they feel. We learn by going through bad times as well as good times and scary times and sad times and summer times.
I’m kind of beginning to understand that we grow as people by the lessons we learn. I don’t mean our bodies grow. I mean who we are as people. We each have the right amount of brains and humor and courage and love that’s right for us. How we use those parts of us makes all the difference in how we will live our lives. And the answer to what God’s Plan for us, I think, is deep down inside each one of us. We just have to have the courage to let it out. I hope I have that kind of courage.
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About the Book
Remember Have Gun-Will Travel, Fabian, Roger Maris, Butch Wax, Saturday night baths and ante-I-over. Well make a cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows, grab an oatmeal cookie, find a cozy chair to snuggle into and enjoy the warm, nostalgic true adventures of a boy growing up in small town Nebraska circa 1960.
Stories I’ll Bury In Bloompatch is Thomas James Bruner’s joyous and vivid reminiscence of a year in his childhood. What makes this trip down memory lane unique is that it is not told from an adult point of view. Bruner places himself back in time, telling his stories from the vantage point of a ten-year-old boy who questions the adult world and wonders what his destiny will be.
The boy’s journey of discovery includes a terrifying ordeal into the depths of a haunted basement, the realization of the magic of Christmas, a meeting with a baseball legend, the death of loved ones, ever-present bullies and hometown heroes and his own scrape with death.
There is plenty of humor but the book is not a comedy. There are lots of tears but the book is not a tragedy. The stories are true and in all true stories there is laughter and there are tears. There are also wonderful characters who inhabit the town: Charlie and Toad, Swede and Shorty, Cat and Freddy, Father Hitler and Sister Austere and all the others. You’ll meet them all in a place called Bloompatch.
About the Author
Thomas James Bruner is a lifelong Nebraskan who uses his native state as the setting and source for much of his writing. He has done Commemorative plays for Niobrara, Crofton and Bloomfield as well as novels set in the Devil''s Nest area and the hills near Verdigre. Mr. Bruner holds an undergraduate degree from Wayne State College and a Masters from the University of Nebraska at Kearney. In addition to writing, he has been an educator for thirty years. He lives in historic North Platte, Nebraska with his wife Gloria and daughter Kelsie. He also has a daughter, Darcy, and son-in-law, Stuart Royalty, who work as architects in Los Angeles.