Childhood Memories
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Early one Saturday morning after a Coon hunt, Dad called to me to come see what he had in a bran sack. Well now, I wasn’t so sure that I wanted to get very close to the sack. Finally after much coaching from Dad, I walked closer to where he was standing. I knew there was something alive in the sack. I could see it moving about, every once in a while. Not much movement, but enough to make the hair stand up on the back of my neck.
I am no coward, why I had stood up to the Blackberry Gang. I’ve beheaded many of the thugs of the rag weed knights. To stand up to something inside a sack that I can’t see, well that takes a lot of courage. I don’t have that kind of stuff. I ain’t going close to that sack. Finally Dad walked up to the sack and grabbed it by the bottom. Giving it a mighty jerk, he lifted it straight up in the air. What happened next is almost more than I have words for. My stomach instantly jumped up into my throat. Choking me! I gasped and struggled to suck in a breath of fresh air. None could get into my lungs because my stomach had my throat blocked shut. The hair stood straight up on my head. The hair on my arms and body screamed and stood straight out.
There is no bone left in my backbone, because it had turned to mush. If I could, I would have peed in my pants right then and there out in the sight of God and my Dad and my uncles. But I couldn’t because every muscle in my whole body was frozen solid. My eyes bugged out as if about to jump out of their sockets.
Right then and there it rolled out on the ground. The biggest and most ugliest thing there is from the deep dark pits of hell. It turned its head in my direction. Beady eyes staring right at me!! It’s long snout dripping with yellow snot. Ears standing straight up to pick up my slightest sound!
I’m dead!! It’s coming to gobble me up. It’s fangs hung below the snarling lips. Chew me up into little pieces and swallow me into that hideous body. That’s what it’s going to do! This must be for all the things I’ve done wrong. I didn’t mean to grab that harmonica from my Sis. The devil made me do it. I’m sorry!! I’m sorry for breaking some of mother’s fruit jars and telling her I didn’t do it. I’m sorry, so sorry I will never do any thing bad again.
Too late, it starts moving toward me. Taking two slow steps it stops. Somehow I had come straight up on the tips of my toes. As if someone had grabbed my hair and pulled me up until only my toes were touching the ground.
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About the Book
“CHILDHOOD MEMORIES” is a collection of short stories the author has written of his earliest memories as a young boy ‘movin’ to a small farm and growing up on it.
The entire Wild Wild West story is a vivid portrayal of the mind of a six year old boy’s imagination while playing alone in the country. But, he was not alone as he had his imagination to while away the hours.
Other stories are about life on a farm, from getting the milk cow, to caring for baby chickens. ‘Smoking Meat’ is an actual event that took place many times during the course of his childhood.
His ‘Sis’s Driving Lesson’, parts 1 & 2 describe what two bright children can accomplish, once a course of action has been decided. It required that they work as a team and carry out plans with trial and error, until they succeeded the original plan of a leisurely drive through the country side.
These stories are written in ‘Loving Memory’ of a father who demonstrated and then trusted his young child to follow in his footsteps.
About the Author
Fred was born in 1932 to a family that was not poor nor rich, but their needs were met at a very difficult time in the course of our country.
Fred enlisted in the Navy, August 1950 just as the Korean War was escalating to a fever pitch. While being assembled to receive assignments at NAAS Corry Field, Pensacola Florida, he volunteered for an electronics position, not knowing what it entailed, or how it would change his life.
All during his 21½ years in the Navy he worked with Flight Simulators.
Going from the basic “Link Simulator” to the latest state of the art “Full Flight Simulators” with 6 degrees of freedom motion bases and full wrap around visual systems.
Retiring from the Navy in 1975 he had garnered Instrument Flight Instructor rating and was the Director of Flight Instruction for Bridgeford Flight Services Co. at the Napa, California Airport while carrying a full load of students.
In 1978, he suffered a heart attack and his flying career was over. Going back to his Navy training he applied for a job at the Japan Flight Training Center at the Napa airport and was accepted for the position in 1980.
After working 10 years with the simulator staff he was asked to be Supervisor of the Department. At the same time he was tasked with providing the Training Center with a new training building with 11 large classrooms, a large simulator wing to house two large full flight simulators and the spaces needed for staffing personnel and repair facilities.
He retired in 1999 with full honors and the gratitude of the entire training center.
His writings started in mid 1980’s recalling memories of his early childhood and the lessons his father had taught him. Presently he has written over 65 stories of his childhood as well as about the history of his family. He presently has plans for four more books. “CHILDHOOD MEMORIES” is but the first.