Making fun........

Good evening everyone. I'm happy to have you reading this post. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. This post is about some experiences that involved three boys growing up. The setting is Alabama and the time line was in the early to mid sixties. It was at a time that we didn't have any crops to tend, but we did have all of the livestock on the farm to tend to. After we were caught up with taking care of the stock (cattle, horses, chickens, hogs, etc.) we'd have some time to do most anything we wanted to do. On one particular day we decided to build us a truck wagon. Now, for those that don't know exactly what a truck wagon is, I'm gonna tell you. A truck wagon is a conveyance made by using a board, usually bout four feet in length, fastening another board, this one bout three feet long, across what will be the back very solidly. Then comes another board three feet long across the front of the wagon, but this one is on a swivel of sorts. Those two three foot boards serve axles and the wheels (hopefully those are available to the builders) are secured on the ends of them using bolts through the center of the wheel. After the wheels are on, then comes the steering mechanism. That's accomplished by securing a length of rope to the front axle, one end of the rope to either end of the axle. At this point the truck wagon is ready for action and one has then to carefully select the proper hill to roll it off of. Hopefully rather steep but with a smooth enough surface to enable one to stay on the vehicle during it's usually wild descent into God only knows what. If there are too many ruts then one has to either select another hill or fill in the ruts (which requires "work" and is to be avoided at all costs). When the right hill has been selected tho....The fun begins. Then the process of selecting the first rider begins. Since the hill and the vehicle are both mostly unknowns everyone involved is filled with a bit of trepidation. So the process usually involved everyone using a coin (if one were available) or another game like rock,paper,scissors, etc. Of course, the winner (or loser) had to take the first ride. It was often thought of as the ride into oblivion. ( :-D ) I recall one time we'd constructed a good and proper truck wagon and had made the decision about the first rider. The fortunate one this time was Dennis. So, after a bit of stalling and asking for a rematch at the game, He climbed onto the conveyance, put his feet on the vehicle and we gave him a healthy shove. Away he went. It being a very steep hill he was very soon going at a maniacal speed. Though we'd smoothed the route we'd missed a small rock.
Allow me to say here, that at a lower rate of speed, the rock wouldn't have been a problem, but since Dennis was going a such a high rate of speed it became impossible to maintain proper control. I have to give Dennis credit here. He did a great job up to this point in time. Upon hitting the rock with one of the wheels the vehicle promptly swerved into the woods that were on either side of the path. Unfortunately, though, to make it into the surrounding woods he had to first go through a large patch of blackberry briars. Jerry and I ran as fast as we could to make sure he was ok, but when we got there and saw him come trudging out of the woods we could only laugh. He looked like he'd been fighting 30 wildcats at once. He was scratched from his head to his toes and was boiling mad. Of course, the more mad he became the more we laughed and the more we laughed the more mad he became. At this point we all headed for home to try to put him back together. I wish I could better describe his condition but suffice it to say that there wasn't but a few places unscathed. After a few days of healing we all headed back to the scene and checked on the truck wagon, finding it in rather good condition. So Dennis, full of determination and not allowing the accident to deter him, got back on the truck wagon and headed back down the hill. This time he made it all the way to the bottom. I remember his descent well....His hair blowing back in the wind. I was proud of him for not allowing the hill to beat him and I, at that point, learned a valuable lesson about life. And one that I've never forgotten. To Dennis, it was him against the hill, and he'd never allow himself to be beaten without first doing everything he could to be a success. Thank you Dennis, for that valuable lesson. ............And so it went..........