Work

Work in progress

My uncle, my fathers younger brother, i remember him in those days as this gentle giant that I loved as a brother more than an uncle. He was probably 19 when I was born so by the time my memory has sparks he was still a younger man. I have solid but pillowy memory of my uncle running a game on me. I was probably 7 or 8. My Grandfather ran a grocery distribution company among other things. Somehow I got a mission to go on a 18 wheeler to help deliver product in Kansas City from Corker MO, probably a 4 hour journey. I assume this all came about because I was convinced I was ready to work. I am sure I just wanted to be with all of them. The warehouse was a magical place. My Great Grandfather started it. We go pretty far back in Jesse James territory. In fact my hometown of Crocker could literally have been in any western. A strip or town with a wooden walk. The barbershop had an ancient spinning red and white pole. The Doctor was housed in a building that couldn’t have been more then 200 sq ft. The towns original purpose was a mid western stop on the Santé Fe line. Our church was simple, old and very Baptist. Our family’s true nature wasn’t strictly a tow the line practice but church was our societal obligation. So we were a family deeply rooted in every fissure of our small western town in the foothills of the Ozarks. And I felt like a prince it was all magic. We lived in the house of my great grand Fayher Hugh. And Hugh and his wife Elizabeth were buried right behind the house. The graveyard gave me many nightmares but even at that early age, I felt their presence. And I have always been connected that patch of earth.The simple affection for everything in those days was deep. So the young wippersnapper wanted to get in the game. So Uncle Lynn obliges, so I think…