Pan handling

I have been approrached by pan handlers, and frankly, I have not enjoyed the experience. You have various emotions sweeping over you all at the same time. First, you are saddened by the individual's plight. Then , you wonder, is he , she really this destitute? I mean, to demean yourself to beg for money is degrading. Would someone do it just to free load?

But.there are times when it is necessary to ask for help. I have been in a few scrapes. I once had my car blow a radiator, and I was stuck on Route 66. I was about two hundred or more miles from home, and I was stuck.
I remember walking across a dusty field to a farm house, where a little boy and girl were playing on a swing. I asked if I could use their phone. They called out to their father, who greeted me.
He allowed me into their home, which was nothing to write about, just basic shelter. i sat aty a table, and chairs, and I was offered a baloney sandwich, which I took, and a glass of milk. I made my call home, asked Mom to come pick me up, told her as best I could where I was.
The old man drove me back to my disabled Rambler, and promised that he would come and check on me during the night.
Having nothing better to do, I went to sleep. I was rousted by a bright light shining in my face.
Two cops saw my car, and came to investigate. They began to grill me as to why I was parked on the side of the highway. I explained that my radiator was burst, but I had help coming. They looked askance when I told them from where my help was coming, Northern Indiana, because I was close to Southern Illinios. They saw my books, and my things which I had collected to take back home, so they left, promising to keep watch over me as well. I nodded off again to sleep.
I don't know what woke me this time,but I saw a car pull off to the side of the road on the other side, and a man was walking towards the median strip. I got out and I yelled, "Who goes there?"
The figure did not answer, but kept coming. I began to feel sweat roll down my face, fear. I grabbed a desk lamp, put the cord around my arm and prepared myself to use the lamp for a weapon. The figure got within three feet, I tensed, and then the flash of a passing car light showed me who the man was, he was my benefactor. I must have startled him, when I hugged him. He had been true to his word, he had come back to check on me.
Later on, I heard a frantic knock at my window, it was my Mom. She was all franic, thinking I was dead. She had found help.
So, I have been there. My plight was not as desperate as some. But , I have been there.

Grandma

My Grandma Parsons was a good woman. She raised seven children, and she and Grandpa kept food on the table when it was difficult to do. Grandpa Parsons, or VC as Grandma would call him worked as a water well driller. But he was much more than that, he was also a machinist, a diplomat and just an all around good guy. He only had a third grade education, but what he could do was remarkable. I recal when he was older, and couldn't go up and down the basement steps, he built himself an elevator. It was just as good as anything you could have bought, but he made it himself. It was a little tram you could sit on, and go up the stairs, it was chain driven.

I don't know what kind of an education, if any Grandma had, probably didn't. But, she had a remarkable sense of humor. At nine, she handed me my own BB gun, and intructed me to shoot out the windows in my father's church. She meant it. I never did.

Grandma raised chickens, and cows, and pigs , had to she had a large family, seven children. My Mom was second to the oldest. Grandma protected chicken thieves, and moon shiners, so when other people had things missing, Grandma's possessions were safe. It was sort of like having accident insurance.

All the boys, except Kenneth, the youngest , learned the trade of well drilling. There was; Howard, Bobby, Henry, and Kenneth. I do believe Bobby was the eldest. When World War Two broke out, he joined the Air Corps. He wanted to become a pilot, but his eyes were not good enough. They made him a gunner. I don't believe he ever saw action, but if he had gone, I am sure he would have done a fine job.

During the Korean War, Howard joined the Navy. I got some of his wool pants with the button fly in front. How I hated those pants. He saw action. I don't know much more than to say that.

Henry did not join the Service. I suspect the wars were over by the time he was of age. I know, he came to Dad to find him work. Henry was a fine worker, as all of the men of the family were, but he just had a tough time holding on to them.

Kenneth, never called him Ken, was five years older than me. I got his discarded toys. I recall getting one of his bicycles. It was fire engine red. I couldn't keep the tires up. He was the baby of the family, Grandma loved him best, because as a baby , he had problems. He had always been sick. But, he also got what none of the other boys or girls got. He had plenty of stuff; toys, and later cars, and girls, and all sorts of neat stuff. He also did not have to work like the other boys did. By this time, Grandpa was older, and he was more established, and so he did not have to work as hard as he had. He being five years older than me, and being my uncle, I referred to him as Uncle Kenneth in public. It embarrased him to death.

The Fourth of July(The week-end of the 4th)

It seems that every Fourth of July, Larry and Jane's Anniversary, we meet at their house, and eat, play games,watch fireworks off the deck, and then go home. This year was no different.

We played Yatzi. We always do, and our hearts were not in on the game. Carol hurt so badly, she is still hurting. I wish King would perform some miracle. He was good at predicting how the pain would spread, if only he could tell us how it will end.

If our luck, and I use the term loosely holds, we will be going to Estes Park, Colorado in September. I hope the air is cooler. It hasn't been the few times we have been back, and there have been forest fires. All of which is not good. Again, we will be staying at the Machein's Cabins. We will have the entire cabin for ourselves, and we are going to do nothing but sit and look at mountain air. I hope Carol is well by then to enjoy the trip. I'll buy some portable cameras and take pictures, and ten have them transposed onto my pictures, and used here to make illustrations.

Got another call from Lincoln Christian College. They want money. I don't want to give them any, so i'm never home.

My Ire is Up.......

King Daevid Mckinsey has a program on Sunday morning called "Audio Scribblings". He left Racine , Wisconsin to work on Nova M radio. It is located in Phoenix, Arizonia. When he went to Phoenix, he was in danger of losing his SSI. I asked him to ask for more money, but was told that they , he and another guy had not been paid since they arrived.

I wrote to the station to state that this was wrong. I got an e-mail in reply telling me that I had nothing to do with the matter, and since neither man had complained, I should just butt out. I was further informed that it was customary not to pay week-end help. Also, it was customary for them to pay the station, but since they liked King Daevid's work, they forgo the charge.

King wrote me and said that whatever I wrote almost cost him his job. I would say big deal, shake the dust from my feet, and move on. I don't understand it.

This Jerry does not know that when he pisses me off, the whole world will know.