ALABAMA TORNADO SUPRISE......

Our heart and prayers go out to the all the people in our neighboring state of Alabama who lost their lives and property. More tornadoes have happened in the USA this year than any time before.
We lost some trees near our house during the storm but nothing like the people of Alabama suffered. I went outside yesterday morning early to survey any more damage around our house. A big tree just outside our den windows blew down while I was watching the high winds Wednesday night. Lucky for us it fell away from the house. I discovered two more big trees down in the rear of my shop. One was on the ground while the other one was lodged in another tree. In the 27 years we have lived in these woods only one tree near our house has fell because of a storm. This year in the last month we have had nine trees to fall. A few were rotten at the ground but most were big healthy trees that were up rooted from their place in the ground for well over a 100 years.
A piece of paper on our deck caught my eye as I walked around the back of the house with my camera to take photos of the tree at the den windows. I was still able to read the typing on the sheet of wet paper. It was the minutes from a meeting in which the motion to pay for the spouses lunch was voted on by the Bear Creek Housing Authority. I googled it and found in was in Bear Creek, Alabama. This I found out was 113 miles from my home. The winds had carried this piece of paper to my deck. I also found some other debris in the grounds around our house, a piece of paneling, tar paper, insulation and other papers. I ever found a page from a bible. I'm sure each one of these items could tell some hair raising stories.
Thanks for the internet I was able to track where the paper on the deck came from. The oddity that Bear Creek, Alabama is in the same named county as I live; Franklin County.

DEEP SEA FISHING NIGHTMARE......

A vacation trip to Jacksonville,Florida years ago gave me my first and last deep sea fishing trip. We had went to see my uncle J.B. and aunt Doris and their boys. My uncle was the district manager for several Red Ace Gas Stations in the local area. To show me a good time he was going to take me on my first deep sea fishing trip. Oh, yes I was thrilled with the idea but deep down I had a fear of the water. While younger I was beginning to learn to swim when a school mate held me under water and I almost drowned. Every since I have had a fear of water. By not knowing how to swim I missed a lot of fun through the years. In college I took a first year swimming class. This is the only course I ever failed!! I had to drop out because of my doctor's orders as I had tonsillitis. When I gave the teacher a written note from my doctor for me to drop out of her class she said, " young man you know you are going to get a F since you are failing my class." I got a F!!
Saturday morning bright and early we have coffee and I had some rice krispies for breakfast and it's off to the dock to board a 50 foot fishing boat with 50 people on board. The day is beautiful with not a cloud in the sky. I should have been warned as to what the day would bring as an elderly woman walking up the gang plank had already got sick.
The captain of the boat told us that we would be going about 17 miles out into a prime fishing spot. We could go ahead and fish on the way out if we wanted too. What a beautiful sight going out as dolphins surfaced in and out of the water following along besides the boat. I caught a strange looking fish on the way out. It looked like a big frying pan with a small mouth and teeth. I never did find out what kind it was as my uncle told me to throw in back. Red snappers were what we were going to fish.
Once the captain found the fish he anchored the boat and the fun was on. We were catching fish two at a time when we weren't tangled up with some one's line on the other side of the boat. After about an hour of fishing out of no where came a storm and I mean a BAD ONE. The wind got up and the waves got very high. I had on two life jackets and was scared to death. My uncle continued to fish with others during the storm since the captain said he wasn't going to pull up anchor. We had paid for an all day trip so that was what we were going to get. By now I'm so sea sick I go down below. Once in the hole I find the commode and begin to heave up rice krispies. This continued for some time. When I would heave again the commode would be opposite were I let go; with the rocking action of the boat I don't think I ever hit the target.
Yes, I said a little prayer, "Lord if you will get me off this ocean I will never get back on it again." Finally what seemed like an eternity it was time to pull up anchor and head back to the dock. Man, it will be good to touch land again. Someone tells us the engine on the boat is on fire!!! The boat is dead in the water! What a nightmare as it is now dark. A call goes out to the dock for another boat to come and tow us into the dock. We finally arrive back at the dock at about 3:00 in the morning. I'm so sea sick I have to stay another day before I feel like driving back home. My uncle always laughed at my ordeal. To him in wasn't bad at all. Well I have kept my word with the LORD, I haven't been back on the ocean.

STATE LICENSE PLATE COLLECTION

Ever wake up in the middle of the night and can't go back to sleep?? Years ago while racking my brain during the night I said to myself, Wouldn't it be great to have a license plate from ever state in the USA to hang on my shop's wall?? I was receiving a car magazine that you could place a free add. I WILL TRADE A TENNESSEE LICENSE PLATE FOR YOUR STATE PLATE. Then the fun began as I started receiving some plates from different states and would in turn mail one from Tn. back too those who sent me theirs. The states I thought would be the most difficult to collect were attained right off the start. I found a Hawaii plate locally at a garage sale. Found a bunch of Tx. plates at a junk yard. One guy in Colorado wanted to trade 7 plates. It was always an adventure to go to my mailbox and find new license plates I didn't have. Within a year I had most of the states and finally down to that last remaining plate( Delaware) That one was so hard to add to my collection. I had almost given up on Delaware and one day there it was in my mailbox. Mission accomplished. The Delaware plate was the worst looking plate in my collection but I sure treasured that ugly plate. I have traded for some foreign plates, Australia, England, Germany, Canada, Nova Scotia, Yukon to name a few. I also have several older Tn. plates shaped like our state. Some of these are valuable to collectors. The most valuable Tn. plate is the 1915 , because it was the first year Tennesseans had to by law have a license plate on their cars and trucks. Not many were sold. A collector friend found a pair of 1915's and gave $7,000 for them and had them refurbished. He runs an add in those swap and shop papers all over Tn. A while back a black lady called him and ask, "Are you the fool who will pay $1,000 for a 1915 Tn. License plate??" He said yes I will!! " You had better get down here before you change your mind." He went to Memphis and got a great looking plate, almost in perfect condition. License plates are highly collectible and get this.... A man in California has every state license plate that has ever been issued!!!!

CHEAP GAS PRICES......1959!!!!

I know we all are feeling the effects of high gas prices. And we though they were high back in the day at 19.9 per gallon. OK, not all of you go back that far??. While in high school 19.9 was what we paid for a gallon of gas. For $1.00 you could drive a week or more. Man, those were the good old days, little did we know how good at the time.
I had enrolled in college at Murfreesboro,Tn. and was staying with my Aunt and Uncle and their two boys, Randy and Steven. My sleeping quarters was in the same room with the two boys. Little Steven had a problem, he was afraid of the dark and insisted on sleeping with the light on. Once he was asleep I would get up and turn the light out. If Steven woke up during the night he cried out and I would have to get up and turn the light back on. I soon found out it was better to sleep with the covers over my head as to try to out smart Steven.
My uncle J.B. was the manger of the local Red Ace Gas Station. He received a call from his boss that the station was going to start a Gas War for the week end. He told uncle J.B. to lower the price of gas from 19.9 to .09.9 starting Friday morning and running till Monday morning. Uncle J. B. ask if I would help pump gas during this time and I was glad to help. Back then stations pumped your gas when you came into the station. They also washed your windshield, checked your tires for low air pressure and put in oil if you needed it. We didn't know what self service was back in those days.
You can imagine the crowd of cars coming into the station that weekend to fill up their tanks with that cheap gas. We were the only station in town with those low prices. The cars formed a long line while waiting to reach the pumps and the line ran for blocks. Tanker trucks were standing by to fill the in ground tanks out back as soon as we pumped them down low. To say that weekend was a mad house is an under statement. Man did we sell the gas. That weekend the gallons sold was a new record for the Red Ace Owner.
The old saying," What goes down will go up" was true, because Monday morning Mr. Red Ace called Uncle J.B. and told him to raise the price of gas to 24.9. I know the people weren't happy with the new gas price. Little did we know what a great deal that was at the time.
Today or tomorrow it's time to fill up my wife's car and my truck. $3.69 here at present. Man, I wish it was 1959 again.

FLYING KITES........

March winds always back memories of when I was a young boy and my love of flying a kite. Times where tough in our household with 3 siblings. Kites cost a dime at the local 5 & 10 store. Guess you haven't seen one of those stores in a long time? I was too poor to buy a store bought kite so I made my own.
First you needed a big brown paper sack, two sticks, some string, glue and a piece of cloth to make a tail. The big brown sack was cut so it would lie in one large flat piece. I would find some round weed stalks that grew down by the creek. They were about a half inch in diameter and very strong. The sticks were arranged in a cross pattern with the vertical one longer that the other one. They were tied together with some string forming the cross. Around the outside of the cross you attached a string in each stalk by silting it with a knife. Once you had the outline of your kite you placed the cross onto your brown sack and traced a line about an inch bigger than your cross. You would turn the sack's extra inch over the string and glue the paper around the cross. I would mix some flour and water to make my glue. Yeah, we were poor!! once the glue dried you need a long piece of cloth to make a tail for your kite. The stronger the wind the longer a tail should be. Mom always had a big stool of strong thread that was used to attach to the center of the cross. My kite is ready for a flight.
Only one place in the neighborhood to fly my kite. The Ward's vacant field by their home that had no trees or electric wires. Test to see which way the wind was blowing and run with the kite and give it more line until it was airborne. What a thrill it was to see my kite soar into the sky. If every thing was right with your creation it flew effortless in the strong wind.
Several times it flew out of sight and when reeled back to earth it would have ice on the kite. Once I built a kite out of aluminum foil and when it was almost out of sight I cut the string. A radio station was about a half a mile away and people began calling the station reporting a flying saucer. Those were the good old days. I might go to town this afternoon and buy me a real kite?? I'm just about over being poor????

Mother-In- Laws.......

My wife and I have always discussed major purchases through the years. Some times a deal comes up when you least expect it. If you delay to act on that deal it's might not be there the next hour or day or even a week.
I was working on a remodel job and the guy who lived next door to my job site came over early one morning and asked if anyone wanted to buy a fishing boat he was thinking about selling. One of my workers asked him, "What do you want for the boat ?" I need to sell it today I will take $300 for boat,motor and trailer. It has a 50 horsepower Johnson motor and runs real good. Come on over and look at it. My worker is excited when we see the rig. " Man I wish I had the money to buy that boat but there's no way I can buy it. It's a great deal Nick that thing is worth at least $1000. Why don't you buy it he ask me??
Well my interest peaks but what will my wife say when I bring it home? She always complained on the first boat I bought and took years to sell. Spur of the moment great deal and I write the guy a check and the boat is mine.
How in the world am I going to justify buying this boat without discussing it with my wife. The best time to announce some thing like this is to catch her in the right mood, has worked several times before! A great plan comes to mind....take the boat, motor and trailer up into the woods at our house and hide it till the right moment to break the news. What a brilliant idea???
My wife works till 5:00 so she want see me hide the boat. Did I tell you my mother in law lives next door??? I don't think I did!! My wife came home from work and it hasn't been long since she arrived home that the phone rings and she answers. It's her mom.....What''s Nick going to do with that boat he has in the woods??? And then it hit the fan!!!! Got to love those mother in laws????

CHRISTMAS TREE WOES.....

That December day I would have never thought a Christmas tree could cause so much trouble for me. I was in high school and it happened during our Christmas break. I was going with a girl named L.L.L. who was the daughter of a Church of Christ minister.
I was working for my father and when I arrived home she called and ask if I wanted to take her to get a Christmas tree, of course I said yes. I found a handsaw and drove to her house to pick her up and go tree hunting. Back in those days no one in our small town sold Christmas trees and I don't remember any artificial ones you could purchase. " Hey, Nick I know a place out in the country where there are plenty of cedar trees. The man who owns the farm gave me permission to select and cut a tree.
Three inches of snow covers the ground as we drive a few miles out into the country side. The old Ford is slipping and sliding all over the road but we make in to the farm. The snowy hillside is covered with cedar trees of all shapes and sizes as we depart from the car. There is a lovely tree just off the road. No, I don't like that one she says, imagine that? We begin the quest for her perfect tree. She doesn't like any of the ones I like. This tree hunting has become an ordeal for me. Finally after about an hour she selects the tree she wants on top of the hill. With my handsaw I cut the six foot cedar down and begin the climb down the hill to where I parked the car. Guess what?? as we come to that first tree I liked she stops and gives it another look. You know Nick I think you were right about that tree, that's the one I want. You can have the other tree from the top of the hill. I learned early in life that women like to change their minds.
We arrived back at her house and we begin to decorate the tree.  She is finally happy with how the tree turns out with all the globes, lights and roping and icicles. Anyone remember when we used icicles on our trees?? Later after supper her parents retired to their bedroom and we stayed in the living room watching TV while cuddled up on the couch. What happened next is when it hit the fan!!!!
After all our efforts to get the tree and the decorating we both fell asleep on her couch. Her father awakes at 5:00 am to get ready for work and finds us asleep on the couch. "GET UP AND GET GONE!!!!!!! I remember him saying in a harsh voice that didn't become a minister. It didn't take me long to get out the door. He didn't forbid his daughter from dating me but I always knew he never trusted me again. She was grounded for a few weeks and couldn't drive the family car for a while.
Dad when I got home early that morning asked, " where have you been all night ?" I tell him what happened and he says that doesn't change a thing, young man you are going to work all day with me." Man that was one long day!!