The Wishing Well

Les was busy putting some finishing touches to his painting , when I sneaked in to watch him work. I had a broom in one hand, just in case someone would catch me not working. I took a seat on an over turned can of unopened State paint.

State highway paint never dries. That is a fact. You could paint a post, come back a year later, and the paint would still be wet. Since they only painted once every four years, I wondered why they would need to ever repaint? Well, I discovered that although their paint never completely dries, it does chalk up, and blow away. So, be it known, State Paint never dries. Oh, and when painting out in the open, paint so that the wind does not paint you as well as what you are trying to paint. Two facts to know while working on the road.

I had always wanted to be an artist. I never did because of an early event in my life. When I was five, I drew a picture of my father in the shower. It was flesh colored and I thought I had done a good job on drawing but the reaction from the Ladies Aid Society that afternoon was not positive, and I embarrassed my mother. That put a crimp in my style for some time, and after that I shied away from drawing. I could have tried other sujects, but I just stayed away.

I had a new ambition, born in the Fourth Grade. My friend Andy wrote a story about two sqirrels who were detectives. I was mezmerized by his ability to weave fiction onto the written page. From that moment on, I knew what I wanted to do. After that, I was always trying to think up new stories, but I was never as good as Andy. In the Eighth Grade, Andy discovered baseball. He was an excellent Catcher. Did you know that only the Catcher has to play the entire field during a game? He has not only to catch the ball when the pitcher throws the ball at home plate,, but he has to guard against a steal, catch pop ups. It is a very demanding position to play. And although I was never going to be as good as he at writing or at playing baseball, that did not mean that I wasn't going to continue to try.