Due to recent news events, I got to thinking about my childhood. I remember such things as my first attempt at keeping a bicycle upright. A neighbor had me get on his son’s bike and gave me a running push down a narrow barbwire fenced trail between his fields. In retrospect, it was probably not a well thought out idea. Obviously, I crashed but survived without too many scratches.
I remember getting my first bicycle on my 8th birthday. It was actually my oldest sister’s bicycle that had been shined up and had new tubes and tires put on it. Yeah, I learned to ride a bike on a girl’s bicycle! Do you want to make something of it? I didn’t get to try to ride it that night or even have birthday cake because we rushed off to where I had my first ride in a plane.
We flew from Lebanon, Missouri to Tulsa, Oklahoma and then back. We were in my uncle’s airplane. He was taking his mother back to her home, and since it was my birthday, Dad worked it out to where we got to tag along. If any of you remember the television show Sky King the plane looked just like it. Being just then 8 years old without any previous flying experience, I thought it was really loud and really cool, except for the occasion of when the plane died as we were flying over a large lake. Then, for a short time it got very quiet and uncool.
Again, obviously, we didn’t crash, since I am able to keep you enthralled and on the edge of your seats as you read this. Shortly after that, I signed up to play Little League baseball. They made me into a pitcher and showed me how to so the wind up and release. I remember going to stores with my mom and while she shopped, standing off to the side and practicing my windup and release, over and over again. It was a good year!
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| The Hillbilly Boy |
As to the reason I am writing this, it is because I can. I am still alive to tell you about some of these things! I am old enough to tell you about experiences over a large period of years, more years than seem possible because it seems like such a short time. I can tell you about my experiences, my children, my grandchildren and so on.
I say all this because recently, a little 8 year old’s life and others’ lives were ended, and others’ lives forever changed by some cowardly people who placed bombs at the Boston Marathon. I saw the little boy’s picture, his little smiling face topped off with a ball cap. Usually these things make me worry about my grandchildren, friends’ children, everyone’s children. But this time it reminded me of my ball cap, my youth and my yesteryears. This little eight year old, just as the Sandy Hook children, will never get to reach his potential. We all wonder why and we all grieve!
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| Martin Richard |
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| Young Afghan School Girls from Herat |
Anyone who tries to force people to live by their religion, rather than let the people make their own choice as to how they live, is seriously confused as to God’s wishes! From what I read, God made us to where we could make choices. He wants us to live for Him and I believe it is best that we do. But He only wants us to do so if we choose to do so. To go through the motions because of the fear that people will kill you if you don’t does not meet His requirements and is a complete waste of time!
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| Malala Yousafzai, the teenage girl shot by the Taliban for promoting girls' education |
One thing that is obvious, crazy people are amongst us! Radicals are amongst us! Criminals are amongst us! They always have been. All the laws in the world will not change that! They only obey the laws they choose to obey! We can never change enough laws to make them obey them. The only people affected by law changes are those who obey them, law abiding citizens. In other words, good people, the majority of us, get punished, give away our rights, etc. to (mistakenly) feel safer, and to (mistakenly) make us feel as if our government is doing something. Of course they are continually doing something ---- spending lots of our money!
During the prohibition people still got and drank alcohol. We have laws against drugs; people still are able to get them. If all guns were made illegal, criminals would still be able to get them. When things are made illegal, it just creates illegal markets! Actually, there is already a worldwide market of weapons that come from militaries.
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| Prohibition Era Prescription Form for "Medicinal" Alcohol. Sound Familiar? |
I wish that I could tell you that things are going to get better, safer, and more secure, but they are probably not. Probably the best thing you can do besides pray, is to live your life, help others, and to learn to be watchful. Law enforcement generally is of help after the fact. So mostly you are responsible for your own welfare! Lots of time when things are not right, they won’t look right. Learning to see what doesn’t look right around you can be your best defense. This is something I had to learn once I started working in the large cities. I got very close to being jumped by two hoodlums but was kept from harm by a buddy that saw it happening. Since then, I have been much more aware!
Use your Hillbilly Senses. Be Safe!
From the Hillbillies’s Corner
