The Rock Wall

As soon as I saw “Flint obituary” listed in my emails, I feared the worst. I clicked on it and up came the photo of my friend, Freda Flint. I can’t tell you how many fun conversations we had about guns. Freda loved guns and loved to shoot them. She made no bones about it: she would shoot a skunk with four legs or two. Her declining hand strength forced her to shoot a revolver because she couldn’t offer enough resistance for a semi auto pistol to function. She had a long and valuable career at the Northeast Vernon County School in Schell City many of those years as executive secretary to the board. Great lady.

If I needed to know anything about the school, I usually started with her.

– While we were at the TOPS Potato Bake last week, Nancy and Laddie Tabor invited us to the 100th birthday celebration for her dad, John Brown, one of the former WWII POWs I interviewed for the paper a few years ago, then followed it up with a mailed invitation. As I recall, Joe Hendricks suggested during a ceremony at the cemetery that I interview former POWs.. Kimball and I made the trip to Ft. Scott and are glad we did. Mr. Brown was bright and alert in his dress black cowboy hat and had a room full of family and friends. It was obvious he was having a good time.

I wonder if, when he was looking down the wrong end of a German gun barrel, he thought he’d live to see tomorrow, let alone a hundred years. As I recall he was a “feisty” POW who never gave up.

– Kimball told me today that Adrian is going to mail us a ham for Easter then she, Cain, Van, and baby brother in utero plan to fly to Springfield to come help us eat it.

-Erica and Reese were at our house for several hours on Saturday. By the time I got home from working on the election grid, Reese was sound asleep in her mother’s arms in the shade of our north patio. Kimmie (She prefers Kimmie to Grandma. I’m just plain ol Grandpa like my dad and his dad before him. Once as we were leaving Mom and Dad’s house, Toddler Adrian told first one then the other, “Bye Backaw.”) and Momma Erica said she had been awake for several hours. Big brother Ben did not take much persuading to plough into the small shake I brought home. I didn’t know they were there or I would have brought one for everybody. Ben had been picking up sticks and limbs out of the yard and carrying them to the burn pile so he had earned his reward.

When Davis arrived, he and Ben went down below the house from some target practice. Even at that range, on the first shot, Reese, Erica and I jumped. I don’t think it was loud enough to damage the baby’s ears, but Erica covered her exposed ear none-the-less. The other one was planted firmly against Momma. KL