Heres a little something to ponder. When I was young and worked at my first job, I lived in Farmington, Il. in a old-old mobile home with a old-older friend named Gusta. Now he couldnt get around very well and I got him his morning coffee/Gin a toast before going to work. This olboy would limp around with a Winchester .22 single-shot rifle as a crutch. During the day hed set outside on a rough cut lumbered porch. All day long. There was a old falling down barn about 50 feet from his home and it was full of old news papers and car parts, and Rats. Hed sit there and try to pick them off with that .22. Sometimes hed hit one or two, out of I dont know how many. Sometimes Id sit there with him and listen to his stories about life. And sip a little coffee/Gin and plug a rat or two. There were also so many cats that we didnt have to pick up and dead rats or mice, which are baby rats to me. The stories that he would tell me about the area 30 or 50 years before I was even born were wild tails of making home made Gin and running it to little spots on 116, which was dirt at that time. He always ran a Buick. Which still sat in that old barn I think. I remember looking at what I could see of its back-side and there were little round holes all over it. Just inside the trunk was a sheet plate 1/2 thick welded straight up all rusted and it had little round indentions all over it. That car must have weighed a ton more then when it was new. He told me the law was always waiting for that loud rumbling sound at night just off the road by the rail-road tracks and since he was moving so fast only had shots at the tail end of it. Said he still had a bullet in his hip from a stray shot from a .00 buck that snuck down the side of the car. I can still recall the scar where it went in. Of course he never went to the docs. But I stay with him for three years before he past on. Sometimes I can remember many stories he told me back then. That was over 45 years ago. I lied to get a labors job on the R&R then. Hardest work I ever had to do, ever. Im thinking of ya Gusta. member the good times.
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 06:16:28 +0000
Trending Topics
© 2015